commotion of the elements; and at the appointed hour his sleigh
glided up through the snow like a stage-apparition behind thickening
veils of gauze.

I was getting to know him too well to express either wonder or
gratitude at his keeping his appointment; but I exclaimed in
surprise as I saw him turn his horse in a direction opposite to that
of the Corbury road.

"The railroad's blocked by a freight-train that got stuck in a drift
below the Flats," he explained, as we jogged off into the stinging
whiteness.

"But look here-where are you taking me, then?"

"Straight to the Junction, by the shortest way," he answered,
pointing up School House Hill with his whip.

"To the Junction-in this storm? Why, it's a good ten miles!"

"The bay'll do it if you give him time. You said you had some
business there this afternoon. I'll see you get there."

He said it so quietly that I could only answer: "You're doing me the
biggest kind of a favour."

"That's all right," he rejoined.

Abreast of the schoolhouse the road forked, and we dipped down a
lane to the left, between hemlock boughs bent inward to their trunks