hay had gone up, and farmers could make a few pounds.
But that job, like most others, had had to be abandoned now.

Why, here was the great stoggle oak by the pool, on whose limbs in former
times, tradition had it, many a highwayman had swung! The storm to it was
nothing: it had weathered so many: the world was a fair place; but life
was full of tests as well as trials. "Heads up! Bear yourselves like
men," its limbs seemed to roar in solemn, deep diapason. "Heads
up!--there is a haven for all ahead!"

It was fifty yards further on before the voice of the oak was lost. But
as man and dog worked further still, for very joy of the wind and the
snow and love for the elements at their worst--the horses struggling, the
waggoners calling to them loudly and urging them to put their best into
it, with many a crack of the whip--there suddenly fell a lull, and for a
moment there was peace. And just then, up from the valley, there came
other sounds--the larch and the firs down there were sighing out a tune
to themselves, being partly sheltered by the hill.

It was time to turn back. There was a lane in the direction of those last
sounds: home could easily be reached that way, and, likely enough, with
the set of the wind, the roadway itself would have been swept almost
bare.

The waggons were lost to sight in a moment, though the woody rattle of
the axles could still be heard: snow was falling heavily again: the cold
was becoming intense: the wind was now dropping altogether. A dead bird
or two were passed, lying in the snow, claws in air and already stiff: a
felt and a yellowhammer were side by side at the bottom of the hill. It
was like the dead in gay uniforms, lying scattered after an action. A
little further on there was a blackbird, to Murphy's very evident glee.
He found it at once, and was for carrying it home; it was still warm. But
this was no time for fooling. It was already dark and growing darker; the
proper thing to do was to keep together and make for home. Travelling was
none too easy, even for tall men, and really difficult for dogs in
places.

At points where field gates opened on to the road, drifts had formed two
feet in depth, right across the way, and it was necessary to pick up the
dog and carry him, though to the latter's thinking that was a silly thing
to do. Time was, when his master had had to do that; but he had then been
no better than a child in arms. Now he was a man, and had come to man's
estat