In the excitement incident to haste,
And waiving further ceremony cried:—
"Our cabin has been taken by a slide!"
Steve as a snowy Santa Claus appeared,
Pulling the icicles from off his beard,
Relating, in his intervals of breath,
His tale of dire disaster and of death;
He, and his partner "Smithy," were on shift
Within the tunnel working in a drift,
Chasing a stringer in their search for ore,