We must take things as we find them; and this is why cold, rain, and
frost, the whistling of merciless winds, together with false and
pitiless ice, constitute the principal features of our introductory
chapter. The merry chimes of sleigh bells, as if to add gloom to the
scene, were silent, no snow having fallen this winter, and the ice being
irregular and lumpy. The streets of the city of T---- were almost
entirely deserted of foot passengers, owing to the danger of walking
over the slippery pavement; while cabmen and omnibus conductors had
cautiously driven their teams to the stable or smithy, to have them
"sharpened" for the frozen coat of mail which enveloped the earth. When
about dusk, an aged gentleman, in a cloak, with a sharp-pointed cane in
his hand, might be observed moving along the gutter of a narrow street.
Occasionally he would slip so as to come on one knee, and now he would
steer himself along by taking hold of the sills of windows, and of the
railings which here and there were erected in front of a few houses on
the retired and deserted street on which he crept along.

At length he approaches an old three-story, red, frame-built house,
which, from its shattered and dilapidated windows, at first seemed to
be deserted, but which, from the description left by a messenger with
his domestic in the forenoon, he could not doubt was the place where he
heard the emigrant widow lay at the point of death.

"Is this where the sick woman is?" said he to an old woman who opened
the door.

"Yes, your reverence," answered Mrs. Doherty, at once recognizing the
priest; "and thank God you are come. The Lord never deserts his own,
praise be to his holy name."