It was a severely cold morning in January, which succeeded a heavy fall of snow through the night, five winters ago, that I remarked from my parlour window, a child lingering round the gateway; he was...

It was a severely cold morning in January, which succeeded a heavy fall of snow through the night, five winters ago, that I remarked from my parlour window, a child lingering round the gateway; he was apparently ten or eleven years of age, and miserably clad in tattered garments, that seemed ill calculated to exclude the cold.