And here 's to Peter Goldthwaite 's memory ! '' `` And good cause have we to remember him , '' quoth Tabitha as she drank . How many years , and through what changes of fortune and various calamity , had that bottle hoarded up its effervescent joy , to be quaffed at last by two such boon-companions ! A portion of the happiness of a former age had been kept for them , and was now set free in a crowd of rejoicing visions to sport amid the storm and desolation of the present time . Until they have finished the bottle we must turn our eyes elsewhere . It so chanced that on this stormy night Mr. John Brown found himself ill at ease in his wire-cushioned arm-chair by the glowing grate of anthracite which heated his handsome parlor . He was naturally a good sort of a man , and kind and pitiful whenever the misfortunes of others happened to reach his heart through the padded vest of his own prosperity . This evening he had thought much about his old partner , Peter Goldthwaite , his strange vagaries and continual ill-luck , the poverty of his dwelling at Mr. Brown 's last visit , and Peter 's crazed and haggard aspect when he had talked with him at the window . `` Poor fellow ! '' thought Mr. John Brown . `` Poor crack-brained Peter Goldthwaite ! For old acquaintance ' sake I ought to have taken care that he was comfortable this rough winter . '' These feelings grew so powerful that , in spite of the inclement weather , he resolved to visit Peter Goldthwaite immediately . The strength of the impulse was really singular . Every shriek of the blast seemed a summons , or would have seemed so had Mr. Brown been accustomed to hear the echoes of his own fancy in the wind . Much amazed at such active benevolence , he huddled himself in his cloak , muffled his throat and ears in comforters and handkerchiefs , and , thus fortified , bade defiance to the tempest . But the powers of the air had rather the best of the battle . Mr. Brown was just weathering the corner by Peter Goldthwaite 's house when the hurricane caught him off his feet , tossed him face downward into a snow-bank and proceeded to bury his protuberant part beneath fresh drifts . There seemed little hope of his reappearance earlier than the next thaw . At the same moment his hat was snatched away and whirled aloft into some far-distant region whence no tidings have as yet returned .
Nevertheless Mr. Brown contrived to burrow a passage through the snow-drift , and with his bare head bent against the storm floundered onward to XXXXX 's door .
Goldthwaite Peter Tabitha anthracite comforters hurricane ill-luck snow-bank storm years