WINTER SPORTS. 12/ 



are summer sports, but now is the season for 

 "• carnivals," ice-boating, skating, sleigh-riding, 

 and tobogganing, the most healthy and invig- 

 orating of them all. Perhaps, by and by, as 

 autumn excursions on horseback have lately 

 become popular, the same delightful exercise 

 may be taken in winter, the season of all 

 seasons which I have found from oft-repeated 

 experience to be for it the most enjoyable. 



It is now 1888. We parted company a year 

 ago at Ridgefield, Conn., and if you please we 

 will start again from there. Fanny and I have 

 since that time borne each other's burdens. 

 She has carried me often over many roads, and 

 I have paid her stable bills. Her appearance 

 still denotes content, and she never gives me 

 any cause of complaint, excepting that on the 

 approach of a railroad engine she manifests 

 fear, and turns about, trotting away from it 

 till its noise subsides. 



It is a female characteristic to be afraid of 

 something. A steam engine is as objectionable 

 to a mare as a cow or a mouse is to a woman. 

 We should make due allowance for this imper- 

 fection in the house or in the stable. If 

 Fanny could speak, she would doubtless find 

 some weak point in my character. I am glad 



