It grew warmer as the sun rose, and we were a jolly company behind the merry jingle of the sleigh bells.

We had had a long spell of quiet weather and the road lay in two furrows worn as smooth as ice at the bottom.
'Consarn it!' said Uncle Eb looking up at the sky, after we had been on the road an hour or so.

'There's a sun dog.

Wouldn't wonder if we got a snowstorm' fore night.
I was running behind the sledge and standing on the brake hooks going downhill.

He made me get in when he saw the sun dog, and let our horse--a rat-tailed bay known as Old Doctor--go at a merry pace.
We were awed to silence when we came in sight of Hillsborough, with spires looming far into the sky, as it seemed to me then, and buildings that bullied me with their big bulk, so that I had no heart for the spending of the two shillings Uncle Eb had given me.