dimly at the distant corner, and throws just enough of light along the
street, to show, and exaggerate by so faintly showing, the perils and
difficulties which beset my path. Yonder dingily white remnant of a
huge snow-bank,--which will yet cumber the sidewalk till the latter
days of March,--over or through that wintry waste must I stride
onward. Beyond, lies a certain Slough of Despond, a concoction of mud
and liquid filth, ankle-deep, leg-deep, neck-deep,--in a word, of
unknown bottom, on which the lamplight does not even glimmer, but which
I have occasionally watched, in the gradual growth of its horrors,
from morn till nightfall. Should I flounder into its depths, farewell
to upper earth! And hark! how roughly resounds the roaring of a
stream, the turbulent career of which is partially reddened by the
gleam of the lamp, but elsewhere brawls noisily through the densest
gloom. O, should I be swept away in fording that impetuous and
unclean torrent, the coroner will have a job with an unfortunate
gentleman, who would fain end his troubles anywhere but in a mud-
puddle!

Pshaw! I will linger not another instant at arm's length from these
dim terrors, which grow more obscurely formidable, the longer I delay
to grapple with them. Now for the onset! And to! with little damage,
save a dash of rain in the fact and breast, a splash of mud high up
the pantaloons, and the left boot full of ice-cold water, behold me at
the corner of the street. The lamp throws down a circle of red light
around me; and twinkling onward from corner to corner, I discern other
beacons marshalling my way to a brighter scene. But this is alone
some and dreary spot. The tall edifices bid gloomy defiance to the
storm, with their blinds all closed, even as a man winks when he faces
a spattering gust. How loudly tinkles the collected rain down the tin
spouts! The puffs of wind are boisterous, and seem to assail me from