Hugh had to go a couple of miles out.  He, too, was bound for a farm, to fetch back a sack of potatoes that his mother had purchased, and which should have been delivered before then, only that the one horse on the place had taken a notion to fall sick, and that rendered the farmer helpless.

It was already well on toward sunset when Hugh started out.  He expected to be overtaken by twilight before getting back home; but that was a small matter, since he knew the road very well, and with the snow on the ground it would not be really dark at any time.

It was certainly bitter cold.  Hugh wore warm gloves especially suited for driving, or any purpose when the zero mark was approached by the mercury in the tube of the thermometer.  He also kept his ears well muffled up by means of a toque of dark blue worsted, which he wore under his ordinary cap.

As he had on a heavy wool-lined pea-jacket that buttoned close up under his chin the boy found nothing to complain about in that cold atmosphere, for his blood coursed through his veins with all the richness of healthy youth.

“But all the same,” he was telling himself, as he passed an humble cottage where, through a dingy window, a lone lamp could be seen; and some children gathered about the kitchen stove, “I’m thinking this bracing weather that we boys have wanted to see so much, is pretty hard on poor folks.  The world is unevenly divided, as mother often says; some have too much for their own good; and others far too little for comfort.”

He presently arrived at his destination.  The neighbor’s horse, while not at all fleet, was a steady goer, and Hugh had not allowed him to “loaf on the job” so long as he could touch the whip to the animal’s broad back.

The sack of potatoes was soon tucked away in the back part of the big sleigh.  He also bundled some extra coverings about it, which he had brought along with him, to prevent any chance of the precious tubers freezing.  A basket, with some other things, was also stowed away in the back of the vehicle; after which the boy said good-night to the farmer, and started on his return trip.

Hugh was about half-way home when something occurred to excite him not a little, though at the time he did not even suspect what an intimate relation it might have in connection with certain facts that he and his chum had only recently been discussing at length.

His horse suddenly gave a series of snorts, and at the same time shied to one side as if startled.  Hugh gripped the lines tighter, and strained his eyes to see what was wrong, while, perhaps, his heart did start to beating faster than ordinary, although he could not be said to be alarmed in the least, only excited.

A wavering figure started out toward him.  Then Hugh discovered, greatly to his surprise, that it was a woman, and that she held by the hand a child of about five, a boy at that.

She tried to speak to him, but seemed overcome with weakness, as though she might have been trudging along until exhausted by want of food and the severe cold.  Hugh guessed that possibly the couple must have come out of a side road he had passed a few hundred feet back, for they were certainly not there when he went by on the way to the farmer’s place.