December 17 — Rained all last night and to-day. A cold freezing wind blew from the north all night and froze the rain into a slippery sheet of ice nearly as fast as it fell. I got wet from top and bottom in bed, the torrents of rain that fell causing the water to run under me, which rendered my bed so uncomfortable and disagreeable that I had to leave it and seek the comforts of a camp-fire long before day. I was working in the rain all day, carrying rocks up a steep slippery hill for a chimney to our house, and by the holy Joshua, if we have to leave this house in a few days, like we did the first one we built, I build no more chimneys this’ winter.
