The first thing he realized， when he got outside and found the snow falling all round him， was that he had left his coat behind in the Beavers‘ house. And of course there was no chance of going back to get it now. The next thing he realized was that the daylight was almost gone， for it had been nearly three o’clock when they sat down to dinner and the winter days were short. He hadn‘t reckoned on this； but he had to make the best of it. So he turned up his collar and shuffled across the top of the dam （luckily it wasn’t so slippery since the snow had fallen） to the far side of the river.
