A severe frost had set in, and had completely purified the air.

For the last few days there had been no deaths of the plague, and but little mortality of any kind.

Leonard traversed several of the main streets, and some narrow thoroughfares, and found evidences of restored health and confidence everywhere.

It is true there were many houses, in which whole families had been swept off, still left untenanted.

But these were only memorials of the past calamity, and could not be referred to any existing danger.