It is the wonder of the moment of first awakening that one--however tried or troubled he may be when complete recollection returns--may find, at first, rehearsal of only what is pleasant in his mind. Eaton, waking and stretching himself luxuriously in his berth in the reverie halfway between sleep and full consciousness, found himself supremely happy. His feelings, before recollection came to check them, reminded him only that he had been made an acquaintance, almost a friend, the day before, by a wonderful, inspiring, beautiful girl. Then suddenly, into his clearing memory crushed and crowded the reason for his being where he was. By an instinctive jerk of his shoulders, almost a shudder, he drew the sheet and blanket closer about him; the smile was gone from his lips; he lay still, staring upward at the berth above his head and listening to the noises in the car. The bell in the washroom at the end of the car was ringing violently, and some one was reinforcing his ring with a stentorian call for "Porter! Porter!" Eaton realized that it was very cold in his berth--also that the train, which was standing still, had been in that motionless condition for some time. He threw up the window curtain as he appreciated that and, looking out, found that he faced a great unbroken bank of glistening white snow as high as the top of the car at this point and rising even higher ahead. He listened, therefore, while the Englishman--for the voice calling to the porter was his--extracted all available information from the negro. "Porter!" Standish called again. "Yessuh!" "Close my window and be quick about it!" "It's closed, suh." "Closed?" "Yessuh; I shut it en-durin' the night." "Closed!" the voice behind the curtains iterated skeptically; there was a pause during which, probably, there was limited exploration. "I say, then, how cold is it outside?" "Ten below this morning, suh." "What, what? Where are we?" "Between Fracroft and Simons, suh." "Yet?" "Yessuh, yit!" "Hasn't your silly train moved since four o'clock?" "Moved? No, suh. Not mo'n a yahd or two nohow, suh, and I reckon we backed them up again." "That foolish snow still?" "Yessuh; and snow some more, suh." "But haven't we the plow still ahead?" "Oh, yessuh; the plow's ahaid. We still got it; but that's all, suh. It ain't doin' much; it's busted." "Eh--what?" "Yessuh--busted! There was right smart of a slide across the track, and the crew, I understands, diagnosed it jus' fo' a snowbank and done bucked right into it. But they was rock in this, suh; we's layin' right below a hill; and that rock jus' busted that rotary like a Belgium shell hit it. Yessuh--pieces of that rotary essentially scattered themselves in four directions besides backwards and fo'wards. We ain't done much travelin' since then." "Ah! But the restaurant car's still attached?" "De restaur--oh, yessuh. We carries the diner through--from the Coast to Chicago."