aving recovered, I sang all the songs I knew, which were not many, and
repeated the names of the presidents and divided the world into its
parts and recited the principal rivers with all the sources and
emptyings of the latter and the boundaries of the states and the names
and locations of their capitals. It amused me in the midst of my
loneliness to keep my tongue busy and I exhausted all my knowledge,
which included a number of declamations from the speeches of Otis, Henry
and Webster, in the effort. Before the journey was half over I had taken
a complete inventory of my mental effects. I repeat that it was
amusement--of the only kind available--and not work to me.

I reached the mill safely and before the grain was ground the earth and
the sky above it were white with snow driving down in a cold, stiff wind
out of the northwest. I loaded my grists and covered them with a blanket
and hurried away. The snow came so fast that it almost blinded me. There
were times when I could scarcely see the road or the horses. The wind
came colder and soon it was hard work to hold the reins and keep my
hands from freezing.

Suddenly the wheels began jumping over rocks. The horses were in the
ditch. I knew what was the matter, for my eyes had been filling with
snow and I had had to brush them often. Of course the team had suffered
in a like manner. Before I could stop I heard the crack of a felly and a
front wheel dropped to its hub. I checked the horses and jumped out and
went to their heads and cleared their eyes. The snow was up to my knees
then.

It seemed as if all the clouds in the sky were falling to the ground and
stacking into a great, fleecy cover as dry as chaff.

We were there where the road drops into a rocky hollow near the edge of
Butterfield's woods. They used to call it Moosewood Hill because of the
abundance of moosewood around the foot of it. How the thought of that
broken wheel smote me! It was our only heavy wagon, and we having to pay
the mortgage. What would my uncle say? The query brought tears to my
eyes.

I unhitched and led my horses up into the cover of the pines. How
grateful it seemed, for the wind was slack below but howling in the
tree-tops! I knew that I was four miles from home and knew, not how I
was to get there. Chilled to the bone, I gathered some pitch pine and
soon had a fire going with my flint and tinder. I knew that I could
mount one of the horses and lead the other and reach home probab