I had applied for and obtained the job on Friday, received a day's training on Saturday, and now, on Sunday, as I was about to take out an ice-cream van for the first time on m own, I was horrified to see snow starting to fall. The streets and roads were swiftly blanketed.

As I left home after breakfast, I shivered inwardly as well as outwardly; I was gloomy at the thought that not for me this Sunday morning was the leisurely reading of the Sunday papers to the accompaniment of extra cups of tea. I would have given much to have been ableto call off the whole thing. But I needed the job; and I had to pay the tuition which was due the next month.

Strangely enough, after the first painful day alone in the cold, snowy suburbs, I found myself doing the work quite happily in what turned out to be the coldest and snowiest weatherfor several years.

The first day was long and lonely. I had very few customers until the late afternoon and I began to have a strong nostalgia for my own fireside as I sat in my little box on wheels and saw the houses beginning to light up at tea-time; especially when members of various families came out for ice-cream and fled back happily in the gathering darkness to their own particular oasis of warmth and light. Then, too, I had to learn to manage my tail-heavy vehicle — the ice-cream cabinet was at the back — on the icy roads and at the same time try to remember my route and stopping places.