George said no more, for he had been snubbed every time he tried to give his city relative any advice, and he had long ago resolved that he would not willingly give him a chance to snub him again. We ought also to say that there was another reason why George kept silent. A Texan takes unbounded delight in seeing a greenhorn caught out in a norther. It is so very different from any storm he ever saw before, and his astonishment is so overwhelming! George opened his bundle, put on his overcoat, threw his poncho over that and drew on a pair of heavy gloves. He looked as if he were preparing to face a snow-storm. All this while the norther had been steadily, but almost imperceptibly, increasing in force, and now, without any further warning, it burst forth in all its fury, and the roar of the wind sounded like the rumble of an approaching express train. “Whew!” exclaimed Ned, suddenly; “how it blows and how fearfully cold it is!” As he said this he drew his collar together and hastily put on his vest and coat; but when he tried to button the coat his fingers were so benumbed that he was almost helpless. “Why, I’m freezing,” gasped Ned, as his cousin rode up beside him and offered his assistance. “O, no!” answered George, cheerfully. “No one was ever known to freeze to death or even to take cold from exposure to a norther. You’ll be all right as soon as you get to a fire.” “I never saw such a country,” said Ned, as plainly as his chattering teeth would permit. “Summer and winter all in one day.” “Yes, in less than a quarter of an hour,” said George, who was busy untying the bundle Ned carried behind his saddle. “The thermometer has been known to fall sixty degrees almost instantly.” George took his cousin’s overcoat and gloves out of the bundle, but after they were put on they did not seem to afford the wearer the least protection from the bitter blast which came stronger and stronger every moment, and chilled him to the very marrow. It could not have been colder if it had come off the icebergs within the Arctic circle. It seemed to blister the skin wherever it touched, and was so cutting and keen that the boys could not keep their faces toward it. Even the horses began to grow restive under it, and it was all their riders could do to control them. “O, I shall never see home again!” cried Ned, who was terribly alarmed. “I shall freeze to death right here. I _can’t_ stand it!” “You can and you must,” shouted George, as he seized his cousin’s horse by the bridle. “Now, pull your hat down over your face, throw yourself forward in the saddle, and hang on for life. I’ll take care of you.”