"Well, puss," says Man, "and what can you
To benefit the public do?"
Gay.
"Draw round your chair," said I to Frank; "and now for a comfortable,
quiet evening."
Frank and I had been away all the afternoon, on one of our long rambles.
Very pleasantly shone the morning sun, that had wooed us away; the
ground was frozen hard as iron, there wasn't a cloud in himmel's blue,
nor a breath of wind from one direction or another. But towards evening
a change had come suddenly over the spirit of the day's dream, which
found my friend and I still a goodly two hours' stride from home. Heavy
grey clouds had come trooping up from the north-east, borne along on the
fierce fleet wings of a ten-knot breeze; then the snow had come on, such
snow as seldom falls in "bonnie Berks;" and soon we were surrounded by
one of the wildest wintry nights ever I remember. Talking was
impossible; we could but clutch our sticks and boldly hurry onwards,
while the wind sighed and roared through the telegraph-wires, and the
snow sifted angrily through the leafless hedgerows. It was a night that
none save a healthy man could have faced.
Ah! but didn't the light from the cosy, red-curtained window, streaming
over our own snow-silvered lawn, amply reward us at last; while the nice
dinner quite put the climax on our happiness.
"Now for your story," said Frank. "Now for my story," I replied; "I
will call it--"
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