wo men.

The ploughs were followed by heavy rollers of wood to pack the snow.

Erik, my driver, said that every farmer is obliged to furnish horses to
clear the road and level it after a snowstorm. The number of horses he
furnishes is regulated by the size of his farm. It is very important
that the road should be kept in good order, and the rules are strictly
enforced.

As we travelled along the road, it was amusing to see horses and dogs
roll in the snow; they enjoyed it! The horses that we drove would often
take a nip of the snow, and the dogs that followed us did likewise.

One day when I was looking at two horses rolling in the snow near a
farmhouse, I suddenly felt a great jerk and we were pitched out
headlong! Our horse wanted to have some fun! So he fell on his side and
was about to roll over and enjoy himself, taking the sleigh with him;
but we did not see the joke. We succeeded in putting him on his legs.
The driver gave the animal a good scolding: "Shame on you, shame on
you!" he said to him. The horse listened, and seemed to understand him.
I think he felt ashamed.

As I journeyed further north the snow got deeper and deeper every hour.
Snow-ploughs were now drawn by five horses and generally attended by
three men.

The snowstorm still continued. It had now lasted over four days, and
with no appearance of holding up. The wind at times blew very hard.

In spite of the snowstorm I continued to travel, and had passed the
towns of Soederhamn, Hudicksvall, Sundsvall, and Hernoesand, with their
streets deep in snow. On the fifth day we had great difficulty in
getting along. In some places the ploughs had not passed over the road
since two days before, for we were now going through a very sparsely
inhabited country. Some parts of the road were honeycombed with holes
about fifteen inches deep, made in this way: each horse that had passed
stepped in the tracks of the one that had preceded him, and made the
holes deeper and deeper, which made walking very difficult for the poor
animals.

The further north I went the deeper became the snow, and travelling
became tedious. Our sleigh tumbled on one side or the other, upsetting
before we could say "Boo!" At each effort the poor horse made to
extricate himself, we had either to get out of the sleigh or be thrown
out. The poor brute would often sink to his neck, and sometimes almost
to his head when he got out of the snow-plough's track! In order to make
some headw