strian, or a sleigh-load of laughing, fur-encompassed faces
returning from an evening party.

About seven o'clock we arrived at the hotel from which the stage was to
start for Quebec--but when did stage-coach, or sleigh either, keep to
its time? No sign of it was to be seen, and it required no small
application of our knuckles and toes at the door to make the lazy waiter
turn out to let us in. No misery, save being too late, can equal that
of being too soon; at least, so I thought while walking up and down the
coffee-room of the hotel, upon the table of which were scattered the
remains of last night's supper, amid a confusion of newspapers and
fag-ends of cigars; while the sleepy waiter made unavailing efforts to
coax a small spark of fire to contribute some warmth to one or two damp
billets of wood.

About an hour after its appointed time, the sleigh drove up to the door,
and we hastened to take our places. The stage, however, was full, but
the driver informed us that an "extra" (or separate sleigh of smaller
dimensions than the stage) had been provided for us; so that we enjoyed
the enviable advantage of having it all to ourselves. Crack went the
whip, and off went the leader with a bound, the wheeler following at a
pace between a trot and a gallop, and our "extra" keeping close in the
rear. The lamps were still burning as we left the city, although the
first streaks of dawn illumined the eastern sky. In fifteen minutes
more we had left Montreal far behind.

There is something very agreeable in the motion of a sleigh along a good
road. The soft muffled sound of the runners gliding over the snow
harmonises well with the tinkling bells; and the rapid motion through
the frosty air, together with the occasional jolt of going into a hollow
or over a hillock, is very exhilarating, and we enjoyed our drive very
much for the first hour or so. But, alas! human happiness is seldom of
long duration, as we soon discovered; for, just as I was falling into a
comfortable doze, bang! went the sleigh into a deep "cahoe," which most
effectually wakened me. Now these same "cahoes" are among the
disadvantages attending sleigh-travelling in Canada. They are nothing
more or less than deep hollows or undulations in the road, into which
the sleighs unexpectedly plunge, thereby pitching the traveller roughly
forward; and upon the horses jerking the vehicles out of them, throwing
him backward in a way that is pretty sure to bring h