The speaker describes encountering a fleshy-faced Viking man with penetrating eyes who warns that winter is no joke. The man's naked, rotund body ripens in the speaker's nostrils. He transforms a smoking branch between his thick fingers into a soldier's gun. The speaker remembers the previous night when the man said he had shot someone and asked if the speaker had ever shot someone. Though wrapped in darkness, the man's gaze assures the speaker he is not as harsh as he seems, and a hint of a chuckle and gleam causes the speaker to laugh.