Snow lay thick on the ledges of the windows outside.

Yet in that part of the country in which they now were there was none on the ground.

They seemed to have run a race with a snowstorm in the night, and to have gained it for the nonce.

But the sight struck her sadly.

The winter, which she dreaded, was evidently on their track.
It was in the first grey hour of dawn that the train steamed into the station, which was the junction for Quebec, and passengers bound for the English settlements south of that city were obliged to change.
For a few minutes before the train stopped the Rexford family had been booted and spurred, so to speak, ready for the transfer.