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5 Early spring on the trail. (Spring 1904) A tent of silk flaps overhead And I, in a bag of furs Am laying there in the far, far north Hearing that biteing, stinging wind With sixty degrees of frost in it's teeth, Twanging the guyes outside. The frost breath rises from my mouth Sifting through the reindeer skin, Leaving it's tole of rime and ice- Clinging to each and every hair But only to melt and freeze again there, And drip back into my eyes. The only sound that vigilant wind, A whine from a restless dog; An occasional clank from his steel stake chain-- A groan that springs from the fevered brain Of my bunkey, asleep like a log. Then it's up. and warm that pemican stew, Then bolt it before the warmth is gone, In steam through which you can hardly see, Composed of icy spiculae-- And then go forth in the storm.