Page:Howells, Stops of Various Quills, 1895 081.jpg

 And hunched upon the load

Above the Company's horses like a toad,

All hugged together

Against the pitiless weather,

In an old cardigan jacket and a cap

Of mangy fur,

And a frayed comforter

Around his stiffened chin, too scant to wrap

His purple ears,

And in his blinking eyes what had been tears,

But that they seemed to have frozen there ere they ran,

The Company's man.

Howells, Stops of Various Quills, 1895 081 large a.jpg