My Side of the Mountain: Winter Arrives

• During the summer and fall, the narrator thought about the coming winter.
• On December third, the sky blackened, the temperature dropped, and snow swirled around the narrator.
• The narrator admitted wanting to run back to New York.
• The first night in the woods without a fire was not as frightening as the snowstorm gathering.
• The narrator was smoking three trout at nine o'clock in the morning.
• The narrator kept the flames low to avoid burning the fish.
• It was awfully dark for that hour of the morning.
• Frightful seemed restless and pulled at her tethers.
• The forest was dead quiet.
• The woodpeckers, squirrels, juncos, chickadees, nuthatches, and The Baron Weasel were gone.
• The water in the gorge was as dark as the rocks.
• Only the sound indicated the water was still falling.
• Above the darkness stood black and fearsome clouds of winter.
• The narrator grew sick with fright, despite knowing they had enough food.
• The narrator stamped out the fire and pocketed the fish.
• The narrator tried to whistle for Frightful but couldn't.
• They dove through the deerskin door into the room in the tree.
• The narrator put Frightful on the bedpost and curled up in a ball on the bed.
• The narrator thought about New York, the noise, the lights, and how a snowstorm seemed friendly there.
• They thought about their family's apartment, where eleven of them lived.
• None of them liked the apartment except little Nina, who was too young to know.
• The narrator's dad didn't like the land, but the sea.
• The narrator's dad was a sailor before working on the docks in New York.
• The narrator's dad told them about Great-grandfather Gribley, who owned land in the Catskill Mountains.
• Great-grandfather Gribley felled trees, built a home, and ploughed the land, but wanted to be a sailor.
• The farm failed, and Great-grandfather Gribley went to sea.
• The narrator could hear their dad's voice saying that the land is still in the family's name.
• Somewhere in the Catskills is an old beech with the name Gribley carved on it, marking the northern boundary of Gribley’s folly.
• "The land is no place for a Gribley".
• The narrator is three hundred feet from the beech with Gribley carved on it.
• The narrator fell asleep and awoke hungry.
• The narrator cracked walnuts and got down the acorn flour.
• Ash was used to remove the bite from the acorn flour
• They reached out of the door for a little snow and stirred up some acorn pancakes.
• The narrator cooked the pancakes on a tin can top.
• The narrator ate the pancakes smothered with blueberry jam.
• The land was just the place for a Gribley.

As winter approaches in "My Side of the Mountain", the narrator prepares for the challenges ahead. A snowstorm blankets the landscape, and the forest grows quiet as animal activity ceases. The narrator confronts the isolation and darkness, relying on their resources and knowledge to survive.