"Closed?" 

 "Yessuh; I shut it en-durin' the night." 

 "Closed!" the voice behind the curtains iterated skeptically; there was a pause during which, probably, there was limited exploration.  "I say, then, how cold is it outside?" 

 "Ten below this morning, suh." 

 "What, what? Where are we?" 

 "Between Fracroft and Simons, suh." 

 "Yet?" 

 "Yessuh, yit!" 

 "Hasn't your silly train moved since four o'clock?" 

 "Moved? No, suh. Not mo'n a yahd or two nohow, suh, and I reckon we backed them up again." 

 "That foolish snow still?" 

 "Yessuh; and snow some more, suh." 

 "But haven't we the plow still ahead?" 

 "Oh, yessuh; the plow's ahaid. We still got it; but that's all, suh. It ain't doin' much; it's busted." 

 "Eh—what?" 

 "Yessuh—busted! There was right smart of a slide across the track, and the crew, I understands, diagnosed it jus' fo' a snowbank and done bucked right into it. But they was rock in this, suh; we's layin' right below a hill; and that rock jus' busted that rotary like a Belgium shell hit it. Yessuh—pieces of that rotary essentially scattered themselves in four directions besides backwards and fo'wards. We ain't done much travelin' since then." 

 "Ah! But the restaurant car's still attached?" 

 "De restaur—oh, yessuh. We carries the diner through—from the Coast to Chicago." 

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