“That makes no difference; one ought, however, to keep as near the road as possible.”[78]
“It takes much longer going by this circuitous route,” said Mrs. Lawyer, with a woman’s impatience.
“Still, unfortunately, we cannot get compensation from the town for the delay, even though we had to neglect important business in consequence.[79] But if, in addition to being made to neglect business, one, after commencing his journey, is obliged to turn back and go by a very roundabout way, there is some authority to show that he may get damages.”[80]
For some minutes we had been winding in and out among lofty pines and evergreens with boughs weighed down by the snow upon them, which was now succumbing to the warm rays of the sun. Something caused my horses to shy suddenly, and over we went, cutter, wife, buffaloes, self, and all. Fortunately our steeds did not run off. At first, when I saw my spouse lying extended on the ground, I was alarmed, but she quickly reassured me by exclaiming:—
“Pleasant it is, when woods are green,
And winds are soft and low,
To lie amid some sylvan scene,
Where, the long drooping boughs between,
Shadows dark and sunlight sheen,
Alternate come and go.
“Beneath some patriarchal tree
I lie upon the ‘snaw,’
His hoary arm uplifted he,
And all the white leaves over me
Dripping their little drops in glee,
In one continuous thaw.”
“Come, come, get up,” I said. “Don’t lie there playing the improvisatore and taking your death of cold, for I fear me I could not recover damages, although we had to come in here because the road was impassable, as I knew it was so before I set out, and therefore ought to have gone some other way and not have come into this bush at my peril.”[81]
Soon all was again as it had been, and merrily onward we went, now and then calling at a house for a few minutes, and then on and on and on. The day was too gloriously bright to spend much time with our friends talking scandal. We came upon some children engaged in the exhilarating amusement of sliding down hill, and one of them we nearly annihilated. The horses’ feet were well nigh upon him before we noticed his little red brick-top standing out in bold relief against the pure white snow.
“Ha!” I said, with a sigh of relief, “’tis well we did not knock the youngster into a cocked hat. It might have taken a good slice off my year’s profits if I had. I remember a man who was driving a loaded team down a hill at no snail’s pace, when he came upon a little rascal (not four years old) on his way to school, and who—to relieve the monotony of the journey—was sliding down the hill (near the edge of the road) lying upon his potatoe pouch on his hand-sleigh, his face turned towards the right, his legs Y-like stretching out behind in the opposite direction. At a distance the man had taken the boy for a dog, then as he came nearer he thought the child would get out of the way, and when at length he did himself try to turn out,—although there was plenty of room,—still the hind runners injured the boy’s left leg so much that amputation was necessary. The man had to pay heavy damages for the injuries he had inflicted.”[82]
“It seems hard that one should have to pay for a parent’s negligence in allowing such infants to wander about by themselves,” said Mrs. L.
“Occasionally the tables are turned. Mr. Roper was once driving in his sleigh at a gentle trot (there were some of his family with him and strange to say they were not talking), when at the foot of a hill they ran over a baby two years old that was sitting in the snow in the middle of the road all by himself. The jury gave the child a verdict of $500, but the court would not hear of such a thing, considering that the parents had been guilty of criminal negligence in suffering the child to be in such a place.”[83]