ent bravely to
work, and we watched them, ashamed of our helplessness, and yet feeling
that it was out of our power to prevent their self-sacrifice. The most
that we could do was to keep up their spirits by cheerful talk and merry
songs; and I must say that when not contrasted with their greater merit
our courage in keeping up the semblance of gayety is not to be despised,
considering that we had been sitting still for hours in cold and
darkness, and had had nothing to eat or drink since our early breakfast.
Even the one disconsolate member of our company was perhaps really
incapable of exerting herself so much as we younger and naturally gayer
women succeeded in doing.

For myself, wretch that I was, I enjoyed, away up in my rocking-chair,
many a stolen moment of pure fun during the intervals my forced jollity
for the benefit of others. There was a comical side to the adventure
which made me shake with suppressed laughter even more than with cold.
The whole affair of the horse was so ridiculous! The long journey in
search of him, the forgetting of the rope, and finally the utter failure
of the plan through the obstinacy of the sagacious beast! I laughed till
the tears ran down my cheeks while listening to the discussions going on
outside. And then to see those long-suffering men pushing our lumbering
old car, with their six hands in a row on the doorsill, and their feet
stretched so far out behind as to look almost as though not belonging to
their bodies, the more so because their clothing was entirely white with
snow! Once, one of them slipped and fell down flat, and I only laughed
the harder, though feeling all the while that I could have beaten myself
for my want of gratitude. The sighings of the patient little milliner,
who sat near the door with her precious bandboxes around her, and the
occasional moans and groans of the fretful widow in her dark corner,
only ministered to my mirth, which was probably the more irresistible
because I was obliged to smother it with the greatest care lest my
companions should become aware of my inexcusable levity.

In one of the pauses for rest the young lawyer gave a shout on
discovering an apple in his coat-pocket. But instead of eating it
himself or sharing it with his fellow-laborers, he cut it into three
pieces and handed it to us, together with a snowball to quench our
thirst; and then they all set to work again as bravely as though they
themselves had just been refreshed wit