"I thought we should have had at least a month here before we set out.

They say the city is as gay as Carthage; and as I have many friends here I have looked forward to a month of jollity before starting.

Every night when I lay down on the hard planks of the deck I have consoled myself with the thought that a soft bed awaited me here; and now we have to take at once to the bare ground, with nothing but this skin strapped on the pommel of my saddle to sleep on, and my bernous to cover me.

It is colder already a great deal than it was at Carthage; and if that is so here, what will it be on the tops of those jagged mountains we see before us?
Why, as I live, that highest one over there is of dazzling white! That must be the snow we have heard of--the rain turned solid by cold, and which they say causes a pain to the naked limbs something like hot iron.

Fancy having to sleep in such stuff!" Malchus laughed at the complaints of his comrade.
"I confess I am glad we are off at once," he said, "for I was sick of doing nothing but idling away my time at Carthage; and I suppose it would be just the same here.