It would freeze the sooner when the frost set fairly in , and then there would be skating and sliding ; and the heavy old barges , frozen up somewhere near a wharf , would smoke their rusty iron chimney-pipes all day , and have a lazy time of it . In one place there was a great mound of weeds or stubble burning ; and they watched the fire , so white in the daytime , flaring through the fog , with only here and there a dash of red in it , until , in consequence , as she observed , of the smoke `` getting up her nose , '' Miss Slowboy choked -- she could do anything of that sort , on the smallest provocation -- and woke the Baby , who would n't go to sleep again . But Boxer , who was in advance some quarter of a mile or so , had already passed the outposts of the town , and gained the corner of the street where Caleb and his daughter lived ; and , long before they had reached the door , he and the Blind Girl were on the pavement waiting to receive them . Boxer , by the way , made certain delicate distinctions of his own , in his communication with Bertha , which persuade me fully that he knew her to be blind . He never sought to attract her attention by looking at her , as he often did with other people , but touched her invariably . What experience he could ever have had of blind people or blind dogs I do n't know . He had never lived with a blind master ; nor had Mr. Boxer the elder , nor Mrs. Boxer , nor any of his respectable family on either side , ever been visited with blindness , that I am aware of . He may have found it out for himself , perhaps , but he had got hold of it somehow ; and therefore he had hold of Bertha too , by the skirt , and kept hold , until Mrs. Peerybingle and the Baby , and Miss Slowboy and the basket , were all got safely within doors . May Fielding was already come ; and so was her mother -- a little querulous chip of an old lady with a peevish face , who , in right of having preserved a waist like a bedpost , was supposed to be a most transcendent figure ; and who , in consequence of having once been better off , or of labouring under an impression that she might have been , if something had happened which never did happen , and seemed to have never been particularly likely to come to pass -- but it 's all the same -- was very genteel and patronising indeed . Gruff and Tackleton was also there , doing the agreeable , with the evident sensation of being as perfectly at home , and as unquestionably in his own element , as a fresh young salmon on the top of the Great Pyramid . `` May ! My dear old friend ! '' cried Dot , running up to meet her . `` What a happiness to see you ! '' Her old friend was , to the full , as hearty and as glad as she ; and it really was , if you 'll believe me , quite a pleasant sight to see them embrace . Tackleton was a man of taste , beyond all question . May was very pretty . You know sometimes , when you are used to a pretty face , how , when it comes into contact and comparison with another pretty face , it seems for the moment to be homely and faded , and hardly to deserve the high opinion you have had of it . Now , this was not at all the case , either with Dot or May ; for May 's face set off Dot 's , and Dot 's face set off May 's , so naturally and agreeably , that , as John Peerybingle was very near saying when he came into the room , they ought to have been born sisters -- which was the only improvement you could have suggested . Tackleton had brought his leg of mutton , and , wonderful to relate , a tart besides -- but we do n't mind a little dissipation when our brides are in the case ; we do n't get married every day -- and , in addition to these dainties , there were the Veal and Ham Pie , and `` things , '' as Mrs. Peerybingle called them ; which were chiefly nuts and oranges , and cakes , and such small deer .
When the repast was set forth on the board , flanked by Caleb 's contribution , which was a great wooden bowl of smoking potatoes -LRB- he was prohibited , by solemn compact , from producing any other viands -RRB- , Tackleton led his intended mother-in-law to the post XXXXX honour .
at beyond by if in into of on through with