reets, while the sun tried to break through the grey clouds which
shrouded the wintry sky. But this was only temporary, for before noon
the mercury fell again to eight below, the wind began to rise, and when
the New York train came panting to the station at half-past six, clouds
of snow so dense and dark were driving over the hills and along the line
of track that nothing could be distinctly seen.

It was not until the train had moved on that the station-master, who,
half blinded with the sleet, was gathering up the mail-bag, which had
been unceremoniously dropped, saw across the track at a little distance
from him the figure of a woman who seemed to be trying to examine a
paper she held in her hand, while clinging to her skirts and crying
piteously was a little child, but whether boy or girl, he could not
tell.

'Can I do anything for you?' he said advancing toward the stranger, who,
thrusting the paper from sight, caught up the child in her arms, and
without word of answer, hurried away in the storm and rapidly-increasing
darkness.

'Curis! She must have got off t'other side of the cars. I wonder who she
is and where she is goin'. Not fur, I hope, such a night as this. Ugh!
the wind is like so many screech owls and almost takes a feller off his
feet, the agent said to himself, as he looked after the stranger, and
then went back to the light and warmth of his office, where he soon
forgot the woman, who, with the child held closely in her arms, walked
rapidly on, her eyes strained to their utmost tension as they peered
through the darkness and the storm until she reached a gate opening into
a grassy road which led through the fields in a straight line to Tracy
Park and Collingwood beyond.

Carriages seldom traversed this road, but in the summer time the people
from Collingwood and Tracy Park frequently walked that way, as it was a
much nearer route to town than the main highway. Here the woman stopped,
and looking up at the tall arch over the gate, said aloud, as if
repeating a lesson learned by heart, 'Leave the car on your right hand;
take the road to the right, as I have drawn it on paper; go straight on
for a quarter of a mile until you come to a wide iron gate with a tall
arch over it. This gate is also at your right. You cannot mistake it.'

'No,' she continued, 'I cannot mistake it. This is the place. We are
almost there,' and putting down the child, she tugged with all her
strength at the ponderous gate, wh