and went back into his car.

Wooden platforms, a station hotel built of wood, innumerable lines of
black rails on which freight trains stood idle, the whole place shut in
by a high wooden fence--this was the prospect which met the eyes of the
English travellers, and seen in the first struggling light of morning,
in the bitter cold of a black frost, it was not a cheerful one. The
Rexford family, however, were not considering the prospect; they were
intent only on finding the warm passenger-car of the train that was to
take them the rest of their journey, and which they had been assured
would be waiting here to receive them.

This train, however, was not immediately to be seen, and, in the
meantime, the broad platform, which was dusted over with dry frost
crystals, was the scene of varied activities.

From the baggage-car of the train they had left, a great number of boxes
and bags, labelled "Rexford," were being thrown down in a violent
manner, which greatly distressed some of the girls and their father.

"Not that way. That is not the way. Don't you know that is not the way
boxes should be handled?" shouted Captain Rexford sternly, and then,
seeing that no one paid the slightest attention to his words, he was
fain to turn away from the cause of his agitation. He took a brisk turn
down the empty end of the platform, and stood there as a man might who
felt that the many irritations of life were growing too much for his
self-control.

The little boys found occupation because they observed that the white
condensed vapour which came from their mouths with each breath bore