And then the fear that when I should attempt to go out I should be discovered and called to a halt, filled me with anxiety." A little after midnight, when the family were in profoundest sleep, David cautiously rose, and taking his little bundle, crept out doors.
To his disappointment he found that it was snowing fast, eight inches having already fallen; and the wintry gale moaned dismally through the treetops.

It was a dark, moonless night.

The cabin was in the fields, half a mile from the road along which the wagons had passed.

This boy of twelve years, alone in the darkness, was to breast the gale and wade through the snow, amid forest glooms, a distance of seven miles, before he could reach the appointed rendezvous.
For a moment his heart sank within him.

Then recovering his resolution, he pushed out boldly into the storm.