However, he ended by picking _her_ up,
carried her, and set her down safely in the sleigh. Alice
followed, and in another minute they were off.
Ellen's delight was unbounded. Presently they turned round a
corner and left the house behind out of sight; and they were
speeding away along a road that was quite new to her. Ellen's
heart felt like dancing for joy. Nobody would have thought it,
she sat so still and quiet between Alice and her brother; but
her eyes were very bright as they looked joyously about her,
and every now and then she could not help smiling to herself.
Nothing was wanting to the pleasure of that ride. The day was
of winter's fairest; the blue sky as clear as if clouds had
never dimmed or crossed it. None crossed it now. It was cold,
but not bitterly cold, nor windy; the sleigh skimmed along
over the smooth frozen surface of the snow as if it was no
trouble at all to Prince Charlie to draw it; and the sleigh
bells jingled and rang, the very music for Ellen's thoughts to
dance to. And then with somebody she liked very much on each
side of her, and pleasures untold in the prospect, no wonder
she felt as if her heart could not hold any more. The green
veil could not be kept on, everything looked so beautiful in
that morning's sun. The long, wide slopes of untrodden and
unspotted snow, too bright sometimes for the eye to look at;
the shadows that here and there lay upon it, of woodland and
scattered trees; the very brown fences, and the bare arms and
branches of the leafless trees, showing sharp against the
white ground and clear bright heaven; — all seemed lovely in
her eyes.
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