Chapter 25

"Beyond the Jewish ruler, banded close,
A company full glorious, I saw
The twelve apostles stand. O, with what looks
Of ravishment and joy, what rapturous tears;
What hearts of ecstacy, they gazed again
On their beloved Master"----

_Hillhouse's Judgment._

It has become necessary to advance the season to the beginning of the
month of October, which corresponds to our own April. In a temperate
climate, this would mark the opening of spring; and the reviving hopes of
a new and genial season would find a place in every bosom. Not so at
Sealer's Land. So long as the winter was at its height, and the clear,
steady cold continued, by falling into a system so prepared as to meet the
wants of such a region, matters had gone on regularly, if not with
comfort; and, as yet, the personal disasters were confined to a few frozen
cheeks and noses, the results of carelessness and wanton exposure, rather
than of absolute necessity. But one who had seen the place in July, and
who examined it now, would find many marks of change, not to say of
deterioration.

In the first place, a vast deal of snow had fallen; fallen, indeed, to
such a degree, as even to cover the terrace, block up the path that
communicated with the wreck, and nearly to smother the house and all
around it. The winds were high and piercing, rendering the cold doubly
penetrating. The thermometer now varied essentially, sometimes rising
considerably above zero, though oftener falling far below it. There had
been many storms in September, and October was opening with a most
blustering and wintry aspect. In one sense, however, the character of the
season had changed; the dry, equal cold, that was generally supportable,
having been succeeded by tempests that were sometimes a little moist, but
oftener of intense frigidity. Of course the equinox was past, and there
were more than twelve hours of sun. The great luminary showed himself well
above the northern horizon; and though his circuit described an arch that
did not promise soon to bring him near the zenith at meridian, it was a
circuit that seemed about to enclose Sealer's Land, by carrying the orb of
day so far south, morning and evening, as to give it an air of travelling
round the spot.

These changes had not occurred without suffering and danger. Enormous
icicles were suspended from the roof of the house, reaching to the ground,
the third and fourth successions of these signs of heat and cold united,
the earlier formations having been knocked down and thrown away. Mountains
of drifted snow were to be seen in places, all along the shore; and
wreaths that threatened fearful avalanches were suspended from the cliffs,
waiting only for the increase of the warmth, to come down