tch as
the hours wore on. Sleep was out of the question, and the dawn of day
found her still keeping her lonely vigil. As the sun rose the wind
calmed, but the thick drifts of snow rendered it impossible for her to
leave the house, and she watched anxiously if any one might chance to
pass, to whom she could apply for assistance in gaining tidings of her
husband. Alas! her fears of the previous night were but too well
founded. He had perished in the storm. His friend tried his utmost to
persuade him to remain for the night when the storm began, but he was
anxious to return to his home, fearing the anxiety of his family: and he
left his friend's house about four o'clock in the afternoon. The weather
was intensely cold, as well as stormy, and, owing to the depth of snow
which had already fallen, he could make but slow progress, and, when
overtaken by darkness and the increasing tempest, benumbed with cold,
and blinded by the whirling drifts of snow, he sank down by the roadside
to die, and the suspense of his wife was at length relieved by the
painful certainty of his fate.

About noon on the day succeeding the storm, as Dr. S. was slowly
urging his horse onward, in order to visit a patient who resided in the
vicinity, he observed some object lying almost concealed in the snow.
Stopping his horse, he left his sleigh to examine it, and was
horror-struck to find it the body of a man. Thinking that, possibly,
life was not extinct, he took the body into his sleigh and made all
possible haste to the nearest dwelling, where every means was used for
the recovery of Mr. W.; but all was of no avail, he was frozen to death.
It was the kind physician himself who first bore the sad tidings to Mrs.
W. When the lifeless body of the husband and father was borne to his own
dwelling, I have heard the scene described by those who witnessed it, as
most heart-rending. On the day of his burial the settlers in the
vicinity came from a long distance to pay their last tribute of respect
to one who had been much esteemed as a friend and neighbour. The widow
of Mr. W. is still living, but she now is of a very advanced age. His
children grew up and settled in various places, and the elder ones among
them retained a distinct recollection of the sad death of their father.

THE NEW YEAR.

Another year has just glided away, and it seems but as yesterday that we
stood at its threshold, and looked forward over its then seemingly
lengthened way,