We called at home once more that I might send a hasty note to my guardian, and then we hurried back to where we had left the carriage. The horses were brought out as soon as we were seen coming, and we were on the road again in a few minutes.
It had set in snowing at daybreak, and it now snowed hard. The air was so thick with the darkness of the day and the density of the fall that we could see but a very little way in any direction. Although it was extremely cold, the snow was but partially frozen, and it churned--with a sound as if it were a beach of small shells--under the hoofs of the horses into mire and water. They sometimes slipped and floundered for a mile together, and we were obliged to come to a standstill to rest them. One horse fell three times in this first stage, and trembled so and was so shaken that the driver had to dismount from his saddle and lead him at last.
I could eat nothing and could not sleep, and I grew so nervous under those delays and the slow pace at which we travelled that I had an unreasonable desire upon me to get out and walk. Yielding to my companion's better sense, however, I remained where I was. All this time, kept fresh by a certain enjoyment of the work in which he was engaged, he was up and down at every house we came to, addressing people whom he had never beheld before as old acquaintances, running in to warm himself at every fire he saw, talking and drinking and shaking hands at every bar and tap, friendly with every waggoner, wheelwright, blacksmith, and toll-taker, yet never seeming to lose time, and always mounting to the box again with his watchful, steady face and his business-like "Get on, my lad!"

We called home once more so that I might send a hasty note to my guardian, and then we hurried back to the carriage, and were soon on the road again.
It had set in snowing at daybreak, and it now snowed hard. We could see only a very little way in any direction. Although it was extremely cold, the snow was but partially frozen, and it churned - with a sound as if it were a beach of small shells - under the hoofs of the horses into mire and water. They sometimes slipped and floundered until we were obliged to stop to rest them. One horse fell three times in this first stage, and trembled so that the driver had to dismount from his saddle and lead him.
I could eat nothing and could not sleep, and I grew so nervous at these delays that I had an unreasonable desire to get out and walk. Yielding to my companion's better sense, however, I remained where I was. All this time he was up and down at every house we came to, addressing people whom he had never beheld before as old acquaintances, running in to warm himself at every fire, talking and drinking and shaking hands at every bar and tap, friendly with every waggoner, wheelwright, blacksmith, and toll-taker, always mounting to the box again with his watchful, steady face and his "Get on, my lad!"
