Up through the gulch precipitous and wild
To where the avalanche its force had spent,
In silent haste the rescue party filed.
On such occasions little may be said,
The sternest use subdued and whispered breath,
For silence seems contagious from the dead,
A vague, unconscious reverence for death.
Facing the inconvenience of the blast,
Which whirled the drifting snowflakes as it passed,
The party shovelled; and with one accord