e would be in the gown, or the
taunt I flung at him, moved the Boy, I cannot say, but suddenly his
struggles ceased.

"I'll wear anything you like," said he with a sudden accession of
meekness, so unexpected that I was alarmed for his health, and gazed
at him closely to see if he were on the verge of a collapse. Instead
of looking ill, however, he was no longer pinched and pallid, but
radiant with colour. Rage had produced a beneficial effect upon his
circulation.

On his promise, I released him, nor did I insist when he waved me
aside, and hurriedly girded up the dressing-gown himself. The garment
reached almost to his feet, and the quaintness of the little figure
shrouded in its dark folds and hatted with Panama straw, in the midst
of a mountain snow-cloud, was a sight to make Fanny laugh; but I kept
a grave face, and so did Joseph and Innocentina, though the
donkey-girl's eyes were bright.

We marched on again when Finois had been reloaded, the party keeping
well together, lest we should lose each other in this mist which was
snow, this snow which was mist. The Boy and I walked ahead at first; I
silent lest I should laugh, he silent--probably--lest he should cry.
The woolly cloud wrapped its folds round us thicker and closer, so
that objects a dozen feet away were blotted out of sight, and for all
practical purposes ceased to exist. The silvery rime, freezing as it
fell, covered stones and boulders so that it was no longer possible to
see the red splashes which marked the way. Soon, we were hopelessly
lost, plunging down into grassy hollows, where our feet slipped
between rough stones into muddy ruts concealed under a treacherous
film of white, or plodding up to the top of knolls which proved to
have no connection with anything else, when we had toilsomely attained
them.

By-and-bye I knew how a man feels in a treadmill, and I was anxious
for the Boy's sake, seeing the queer little figure in the panama and
dressing-gown gradually droop, despite the brave spirit with which it
was animated. Losing confidence in my boasted ability as a pioneer, I
called Joseph to the rescue, and bade him take the lead.

Having intruded upon him suddenly, behind the screen of snow-cloud, I
found him engaged in the Samaritan act--no doubt carried out on purely
humanitarian principles--of warming one of Innocentina's hands in his.
I simulated blindness with such histrionic skill that honest Joseph
was deceived thereby; but not so In