ehind the girl, came forward and helped me on
to the little hamlet, only a few yards distant, where some half dozen
cottages are clustered together round the Carding Mill.

I was saved, at any rate, from immediate peril, though I fully expected
that serious illness must follow from my violent exertions and long
exposure. I was saved at all events from the death of lonely horror
against which I had wrestled so many hours in mortal conflict, and
scarcely knew how to believe that I was once more among my fellow-men,
under a kindly, hospitable roof. God's hand had led me thither. No
wisdom or power of my own could have availed for my deliverance, when
once my sight was so much gone. The Good Shepherd had literally, in very
deed, led the blind by a way that he knew not to a refuge of safety and
peace.

The good kind people at the Carding Mill, you may be sure, soon gathered
round me in sympathising wonder, and I was quickly supplied with such
comforts as they could give. I told them that I had had scarcely
anything to eat since breakfast the day before (as I had been too much
hurried to eat my luncheon before starting to Ratlinghope), and so tea
and bread and butter were at once provided. The former was very
grateful, but I could hardly eat the latter, as all feeling of hunger had
left me. The good people were much shocked to find that I could not pick
up a piece of bread and butter for myself, as I could neither feel it nor
see it; I believe they thought my sight was hopelessly gone. I was,
however, under no uneasiness myself on this score, as I was perfectly
familiar with snow blindness, having seen cases of it in Switzerland, and
knew that in all probability my eyes would get quite right again in a
week's time, as it turned out that they did. They also discovered that
the middle finger of my right hand was terribly lacerated, and that the
skin was completely stripped off the back of it. This I knew to be a
much more serious affair, as the frost had evidently got fast hold of it,
and I thought it very likely that I should lose it. This, however,
seemed a very trifling matter to me then. Had it been my right arm I
should have thought nothing of it, after so marvellous an escape. I was
provided at the Carding Mill with a hat, boots, and dry stockings; and
having rested about a quarter of an hour, set out again to Church
Stretton, about a mile distant. A man from the cottage came with me, and
gave me his arm, a