Not only would they rise and open their doors at
the untimeliest of hours, and entertain you with their choicest of
fatlings, corn, and wine, but there was no amount of personal toil or
risk that they would not gladly undergo to forward any southward-bound
stranger on his way; nor could you have insulted your host more grossly
than by hinting at pecuniary guerdon. Before midnight the snow had
ceased to fall; the next morning broke bright and sunnily, though the
frost still held on sharply. Two or three visitors, masculine and
feminine, came in sleighs during the day, and altogether it passed much
more rapidly than the preceding one. About four, P. M., our good-natured
messenger returned; our comrades had duly reached the spot originally
fixed for the Saturday night's halt, and had pursued their journey on
the Sunday evening to the farm which was to be our last point before
attempting the Potomac; their written explanation was very vague, but
they promised to wait for us at the house they were then making for. We
at once determined to press on thus far that night, though the score or
more of miles of crow-flight between would certainly be lengthened at
least a third, by the _detours_ necessary to avoid probable pickets or
outposts, and the deep snow must make the going fearfully heavy.
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