We were twenty pampered maidens under dormitory glass,

Gossiping about boyfriends, dates and clothes.

We glanced through the tasteful windows at the growing storm outside

And never once took measure of the snows.

Long past the time of night,

We found no morning light.

Blizzard covered all the world we'd known.

Beyond all reach of law,

We looked around and saw

The ice age come to find us all alone.



Chorus:

Cancel my salvation, Give me leave to go

Back to the freedom of the snow, ah, the snow,

Back to the freedom of the snow.



As darkness, cold, and blizzard closed around our cringing cave,

We wore our furs for better things than show.

We melted snow for water when the pipes and the fuel lines froze

And thanked the gods for the stores of food below.

The furnace caughed and died.

We lit the fire and cried;

We didn't have the wood to last a day.

So we played a hand or three,

And the high card fell on me,

So I took an axe and went to find a way.



I found the tree blown over where the driveway used to be,

And the axe flew swift and easy as a flame.

I wasn't cold or weary. It was strange to be so free,

Then out of the dark that junkie came.

He didn't seem to know

I was a changeling of the snow,

Not the easy, peacetime girl he thought he'd found.

The axe swung clean and high,

And it caught him through the eye,

And I took my wood and left him on the ground.



(musical interlude)

We dreamed about this story as we camped beside the fire.

We sang it while we hunted through the day,

Until the hour our sentries saw the snowplow clear the road,

And our families came to chase the spell away.

So go back to your shopping, all, go find yourself a man,

Go forget that you were ever strong or free.

But in dreams I see them still,

The blizzard on the hill,

The fireplace and the fireaxe and the tree