Whenever a member of the Pickett family set his mind on the accomplishment of a certain object, he found no trouble too great, no task too arduous, no effort too severe to bring about the desired end. Abner Pickett set his mind on going home with Dannie. He knew that it would be impossible, that day, to drive back through the blockaded country roads, but that did not deter him. There was the railroad. It was possible that trains might be running on the Mooreville branch. By going on the cars twenty-five miles to Port Lenox, and thence down the river to Fisher’s Eddy, he might still be able to reach home that night. With this plan in view, he hurried along to the railroad station which, fortunately, was only a block from the court-house, and found that a train was scheduled to leave in twenty minutes. There was a lunch-room near by, and, remembering that Dannie had had nothing to eat since his early morning meal, he took the boy in and furnished him with food. Much as it went against Dannie’s inclination to eat, he found himself, after having partaken of his hurried meal, stronger and in better spirits than at any time since his arrival at Mooreville. The conductor on the branch train could not promise them that they would reach Port Lenox that night. Indeed, it seemed, a dozen times, as though the cars would be stalled in the huge drifts of snow that were piled across the rails. But the wind had gone down, and the farther the train went the more clear track was found, and finally, at ten o’clock in the evening, they pulled triumphantly into Port Lenox. The train on the main line was four hours late, and they were just in time to catch it. It brought them to Fisher’s Eddy an hour before midnight. There, where Abner Pickett was known by every one, he had no trouble in procuring a team and a driver who was willing to make the attempt to get up through the drifted roads to Pickett’s Gap. It never once occurred to the persistent old man that it would be wiser, safer, and far more comfortable, both for him and Dannie, to remain at the village until morning. He had made up his mind to set his grandson down by the Pickett fireside that night, and no obstacle that had yet presented itself was sufficient to deter him from carrying out his purpose.