is head into closer
acquaintance with the back of the sleigh than is quite agreeable,
particularly if he be a novice in sleigh-travelling. Those which we now
encountered were certainly the worst I ever travelled over, rising in
succession like the waves of the sea, and making our conveyance plunge
sometimes so roughly that I expected it to go to pieces. Indeed, I
cannot understand how wood and iron could stand the crashes to which we
were exposed. In this way we jolted along, sometimes over good,
sometimes over bad roads, till about nine o'clock, when we stopped at a
neat, comfortable-looking inn, where the driver changed his horses, and
the passengers sat down to a hurried breakfast.

The morning turned out beautifully clear and warm, at least in
comparison with what it had been; and upon re-entering the sleigh we all
looked extremely happy, and disposed to be pleased with everything and
everybody. The country through which we now passed was picturesque and
varied. Hills and valleys, covered with glittering snow and dark pines,
followed each other in endless succession; while in every valley, and
from every mountain-top, we saw hundreds of hamlets and villages, whose
little streets and thoroughfares were crowded with busy _habitants_,
engaged in their various occupations and winter traffic.

The laughing voices of merry little children romping along the roads
accorded harmoniously with the lively tinkling of their parents'
sleigh-bells as they set out for the market with the produce of their
farms, or, dressed in their whitest blanket capotes and smartest
_bonnets rouges_, accompanied their wives and daughters to a marriage or
a festival. The scene was rendered still more pleasing by the extreme
clearness of the frosty air and the deep blue of the sky; while the
weather was just cold enough to make the rapid motion of our sleighs
agreeable and necessary.

In some places the roads were extremely precipitous; and when we arrived
at the foot of a large hill we used generally to get out and walk,
preferring this to being dragged slowly up by the jaded horses.

During the day our sleighs were upset several times; but Mr Stone and
I, in the "extra," suffered more in this way than those of the regular
stage, as it was much narrower, and, consequently, more liable to tip
over. Upon upsetting, it unaccountably happened that poor Mr Stone was
always undermost. But he submitted to his fate most stoically; though
from