Adventure and adventurers > Hudson Bay, or, Everyday life in the wilds of North America

INCIDENTS ” BY THE WAY.
tinkling of their parents’ sleigh-bells as they set out for
the market with the produce of their farms, or, dressed
in their whitest blanket capotes and smartest bonnets
rouge, accompanied their wives and daughters to a mar¬
riage or a festival. The scene was rendered still more
pleasing by the extreme clearness of the frosty air and
the deep blue of the sky; while the weather was just
cold enough to make the rapid motion of our sleighs
agreeable and necessary.
In some places the roads were extremely precipitous;
and when we arrived at the foot of a large hill we used
generally to get out and walk, preferring this to being
dragged slowly up by the jaded horses.
During the day our sleighs were upset several times;
but Mr. Stone and I, in the “ extra,” suffered more in
this way than those of the regular stage, as it was much
narrower, and, consequently, more liable to tip over.
Upon upsetting, it unaccountably happened that poor
Mr. Stone was always undermost. But he submitted
to his fate most stoically; though from the nature of
things my elbow invariably thrust him deep into the
snow, on which, after being extricated, a splendid pro¬
file impression was left, to serve as a warning to other
travellers, and to show them that a gentleman had been
cast there.
As very little danger, however, attended these acci¬
dents, they only afforded subject for mirth at the time,
and conversation at the end of the stage—except once,
when the sleigh turned over so rapidly, that I wfis
thrown with considerable force against the roof, which,
being of a kind of slight framework, covered with