People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1894 — The Bllzzard. [ARTICLE]

The Bllzzard.

A piercing shriek, a maddening swirl. And the blinding storm is on. The wind-swept branches writhe and curt. The fence and the road are gone; Not a landmark remains on the yawning plain*. And the storm and the night are one. There are needles of sleet in the icy blast That pushes against the pane; There are choking billows of snow, that cart Their eddying depths amain. And whirl with a cry through the falling iky That moves upon the plain. Against the stack in huddled tear The unhoused cattle wait, From out the storm rack, shrill and clear, A horse neighs for his mate, Whiles man in the storm with sturdy form Is battling with his fate. Alas! oh storm, for the days that dawn When thy secrets shall be read. Alas! for the aching hearts at home, With their sickening weight of dread. Alas! for the one who will not come Till the snows give up their dead. —Georgiana Hodgkins, in Youth’s Companion