We had passed over about half the distance through the woods, when an incident occurred serving at least to break the monotony of our ride. A dark object by the side of the road, made conspicuous by the snow upon the ground, attracted our attention and that of our horses, who attempted to halt, and required a smart application of the lash to induce them to resume their pace. A moment after we could distinguish the forms of two persons stepping nearer to the middle of the road as we approached them. Not a word was said by either of us, as we were too much engaged in speculating on the character of the unexpected apparitions, to indulge in conversation; but the driver had evidently made up his mind to forestall any nefarious designs which they might entertain. Requesting me to "raise up a little," he drew from the sleigh-box an instrument effectual to lay such phantoms, to wit, a revolver. There was, however, no occasion for its use, for the personages before us turned out to be two French Canadians too far gone in intoxication to be very formidable antagonists, had they entertained hostile intentions, which they were far from doing, as their energies were entirely devoted to maintaining a perpendicular position, and keeping somewhere within the bounds of the road. Their erratic course rendered it somewhat difficult to avoid running over them, but we finally left them behind, muttering "_sacre_" and staggering about in a very social manner. When we had arrived at the village and were within a quarter of a mile of the office, I alighted from the sleigh and walked on, leaving it to overtake me, my object in this being to keep out of sight of the post master, whose suspicions might possibly be excited by seeing a stranger in the sleigh with the mail carrier, although the mail carriage occasionally conveyed passengers. Perhaps this was an excess of caution on my part. At any rate, it did no harm, and I prefer in all such cases to give a wide berth to possibilities. Once more on our way, my mind was chiefly occupied with conjectures as to the result of that night's experiment, and in determining what steps were to be taken in case the money package had been abstracted. The post master himself had changed the mails on this occasion, the driver in the mean time having gone over to the hotel at my request, in order to afford the former a good opportunity for committing the depredation if he entertained any such design.