the blast, with a stiffness that made it seem as though
it had been frozen in the air rigid in that situation. Up the river all
was black and gloomy; and the storm which burst from that quarter
obscured the view; down the river the prospect was as gloomy, but one
thing was plainly visible--a wide, black surface, terminating the gray
of the ice, and showing that there at least the break-up had begun, and
the river had resumed its sway.

A brief survey showed me all this, and for a moment created a strong
desire to go back. Another moment, however, showed that to go forward
was quite as wise and as safe. I did not care to traverse again what I
had gone over, and the natural reluctance to turn back from the
half-way house, joined to the hope of better things for the rest of the
way, decided me to go forward.

After some examination, I found a place on which to cross the central
channel. It was a point where the heaps of ice seemed at once more easy
to the foot, and more secure. At extreme risk, and by violent efforts,
I succeeded in crossing, and, on reaching the other side, I found the
ice more promising. Then, hoping that the chief danger had been
successfully encountered, I gathered up my energies, and stepped out
briskly toward the opposite shore.

It was not without the greatest difficulty and the utmost discomfort
that I had come thus far. My clothes were coated with frozen sleet; my
hair was a mass of ice; and my boots were filled with water. Wretched
as all this was, there was no remedy for it, so I footed it as best I
could, trying to console myself by thinking over the peaceful pleasures
which were awaiting me at the end of my journey in the chambers of the
hospitable McGoggin.

Suddenly, as I walked along, peering with half-closed eyes through the
stormy sleet before me, I saw at some distance a dark object
approaching. After a time, the object drew nearer, and resolved itself
into a sleigh. It came onward toward the centre of the river, which it
reached at about a hundred yards below the point where I had crossed.
There were two occupants in the sleigh, one crouching low and muffled
in wraps; the other the driver, who looked like one of the common
_habitans_. Knowing the nature of the river there, and wondering what
might bring a sleigh out at such a time, I stopped, and watched them
with a vague idea of shouting to them to go back. Their progress thus
far from the opposite shore, so far at least as I could