To Win or to Die

"It's a lie I don't and I won't believe it." The speaker half whispered that, and then he shouted, "Do you hear?" There was a pause, and then from the face of a huge white snow-cliff there came back the word "hear." "Well done, echo " cried the speaker. "Echo," came back. "Thankye; that's quite cheering; anything's better than that horrible silence. What do they say? When a man gets in the habit of talking to himself it's a sign that he is going mad? Once more, it's a lie A man would go mad in this awful solitude if he didn't hear some one speaking. Snow, snow, snow, and rock and mountain; and ugh how cold Pull up, donkey jackass idiot or you'll freeze to death."