40 WINTER SKETCHES. 



together and called to mind the memories of 

 the past and of the school of which I can truly 

 say, in the words of Lowell at Harvard : 

 *' Dear old mother, you were constantly forced 

 to remind us that you could not afford to give 

 us this and that which some other boys had, 

 but your discipline and diet were wholesome, 

 and you sent us forth into the world with the 

 sound constitutions and healthy appetites that 

 are bred of simple fare." 



On the next morning the southerly gale had 

 blown itself out and a cold north-west wind 

 was sending the scud flying through the sky. 

 Fanny, after her rest of two days, trotted 

 briskly out of the stable yard down through 

 the streets of *' Har'ford town," over the Con- 

 necticut River bridge, and on to the frozen 

 ruts of the country road toward Vernon, the 

 first town of importance on another turnpike, 

 the old ''Boston and Hartford," a straight, 

 undeviating line that stretched originally for a 

 hundred miles from the eastern bank of the 

 Connecticut to the seaboard, and can even yet 

 be traced until it is lost among the suburbs of 

 the metropolis. Before noon we had ascended 

 its highest point of elevation, 1500 feet above 

 the sea level, commanding a view of East and 



