We were very tired--all the more
so because we had slept hardly ten minutes the preceding night. But
again we were much disturbed by the snarling of lynxes and the
uneasiness of our horses at the ox camp. In fact, it was another dismal
night for us; we hitched up at daybreak, and after a fearfully rough
drive over bare logs and stones, and several breakages of harness, we
reached the old Squire's, thoroughly tired out, at four o'clock in the
afternoon.
The girls, however, were delighted with our lofty load of witches'
brooms. In truth, it was rather picturesque, so many of those great gray
bunches of intermeshed twigs, ensconced amid the green fir boughs that
we had cut with them. A hall or a church would look odd indeed thus
decorated.
Cheered by a good supper, we made ready to start for Portland the next
morning. During the night, however, the weather changed. By daybreak on
the twenty-third considerable snow had fallen, and we were able to
travel this time on snow again. We had the rack piled higher than
before, with the Christmas trees and the boxes of lion's-paw in the
front end, and all those witches' brooms stacked and lashed on at the
rear.
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