IN DIVERS WEATHERS. 29 



adhesively moist struck me in the face, and, 

 looking up, I saw a few white particles floating 

 in the air. They were the scouts; companies 

 followed, then battalions, and finally, the whole 

 army of the Snow Queen. Borne on a biting- 

 wind, the flakes hurtled along with relentless 

 fury, and it seemed to us that we were the 

 objectives of frontal attacks, rear -guard actions, 

 and flanking movements, all simultaneously. 

 Even the keeper forsook us and fled, under the 

 plea of fetching his mackintosh. He must 

 have experienced some difficulty in finding it,, 

 or, what is more probable, he knew rather 

 more than we, for four hours elapsed ere he 

 returned. 



In the meantime I steadily Regarded a 

 float that showed dimly through the laceries of 

 driving snow, and speculated on the number of 

 twenty-pounders the river held in my vicinity. 



A whitish form, which gradually resolved 

 itself into that of my host and companion, 

 loomed in the distance, and in the Father 

 Christmas (without the beard) who now stood 



