Still nothing was to be seen.  Besides being dark, the atmosphere was thick with snow.  So it was not until they got very near to the travellers, that they could see them at all.  They saw at last, however, some dark-looking object before them.  On coming up to it, they found that it was a horse and sleigh.  The horse was in a very deep snow-drift, and was half lying down.  There was a woman in the sleigh, with a small child in her arms, and a boy, about as large as Josey, standing at the horse’s head.

“O, I am so glad you have got some oxen, sir!” said the woman.  “We couldn’t have got out without oxen.”

“I don’t see how the snow happens to be so deep just here.”

“Why, it’s that island,” said the woman; “I suppose there is an island off there.  I told Isaiah it would be drifted under this island; and now the horse is all beat out; and, besides, we don’t know the way.”

“Well,” said Jonas, “I’ll hook the oxen on, and we’ll soon get you to the land.  Isaiah, you take your horse out of the sleigh.”

So Isaiah went to work to unhook the traces and the hold-backs, in order to get the horse free from the sleigh.

“I’ll get out,” said the woman.

“No,” said Jonas; “you sit still, and keep your child warm.”

As soon as Isaiah had taken the horse out, Jonas told him to lead him around behind the sleigh, while he turned the shafts over back against the dasher, and then he brought the oxen up in front of the sleigh.  He first, however, drove the oxen out of the road with the sled, so as to leave that where it would not be in the way.  Then he took two chains from the sled, and attached the oxen, by means of them, to the forward part of the sleigh.  When all was ready, he put Josey in with the woman, and let Isaiah lead his horse behind.  He then started the oxen.

“Are you going to leave the sled here?” said Josey.

“Yes,” said Jonas, “we can come and get it after the storm is over.”

The oxen drew the sleigh along very easily.  The snow was quite deep for a little distance, and then it became less so; but it was very dark, and it was difficult for Jonas to follow his track.  The snow blew across it with great violence, and was fast filling it up.

However, Jonas soon came to his first rafter, and this encouraged him.  It was a good deal covered with snow, but the end was out, and the direction of it showed him which way to go, in order to find the next one.  After he had passed this guide, the path was no more to be distinguished.  He went on, however, as nearly as he could in the direction indicated by the rafter; and, after going the proper distance, he began to look out before him for the second.  He began to be a little anxious lest he had missed it, when he observed something dark in the snow, at a little distance on the right.  He went to it, and found that it was the rafter.

Thus he was upon his track again; but his having so narrowly escaped missing it, made him afraid that he should not be able to follow the train very far.  His fears proved well grounded.  All his efforts to discover the third rafter were entirely unavailing.