out, we determined upon a volley of snowballs and a good hurrah. These we
gave with a relish, and they produced the right effect, and a little more;
for the crazy machine turned out into the deep snow by the side of the
road, and the skinny old pony started on a full trot. As we passed, some
one who had the whip gave the jilt of a horse a good crack, which made him
run faster than he ever did before, I'll warrant. And so, with another
volley of snowballs pitched into the front of the wagon, and three times
three cheers, we rushed by. With that, an old fellow in the wagon, who was
buried up under an old hat and beneath a rusty cloak, and who had dropped
the reins, bawled out, 'Why do you frighten my horse?'

"'Why don't you turn out, then?' said the driver.

"So we gave him three rousing cheers more. His horse was frightened again,
and ran up against a loaded team, and, I believe, almost capsized the old
man; and so we left him."

"Well, boys," replied the instructor, "that is quite an incident. But take
your seats; and after our morning service is ended, I will take my turn and
tell you a story, and all about a sleigh-ride, too."

Having finished the reading of a chapter in the Bible, and all having
joined in the Lord's Prayer, he began as follows:--

"Yesterday afternoon a very venerable and respectable old man, a clergyman
by profession, was on his way from Boston to Salem to pass the residue of
the winter at the house of his son. That he might be prepared for
journeying, as he proposed to do in the spring, he took with him his light
wagon, and for the winter his sleigh, which he fastened behind the wagon.
He was, as I have just told you, very old and infirm. His temples were