The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII by Various

V >> Various >> The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VIII

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From the bridge, the children passed through the valleys in the hills
and came closer and closer to the woods. Finally they reached the edge
of the woods and walked on through them.

When they had climbed up into the higher woodlands of the "neck," the
long furrows of the road were no longer soft, as had been the case in
the valley, but were firm, not from dryness, but, as the children soon
perceived, because they were frozen over. In some places, the frost had
rendered them so hard that they could bear the weight of their bodies.
From now on, they did not persist any longer in the slippery path beside
the road, but in the ruts, as children will, trying whether this or that
furrow would carry them. When, after an hour's time, they had arrived at
the height of the "neck," the ground was so hard that their steps
resounded on it and the clods were hard like stones.

Arrived at the location of the memorial post, Sanna was the first to
notice that it stood no longer there. They went up to the spot and saw
that the round, red-painted post which carried the picture was lying in
the dry grass which stood there like thin straw and concealed the fallen
post from view. They could not understand, to be sure, why it had
toppled over--whether it had been knocked down or fallen of itself; but
they did see that the wood was much decayed at the place where it
emerged from the ground and that the post might therefore easily have
fallen of itself. Since it was lying there, however, they were pleased
that they could get a closer look at the picture and the inscription
than they had ever had before. When they had examined all--the basket
with the rolls, the whitish hands of the baker, his closed eyes, his
gray coat and the pine-trees surrounding him--and when they had spelt
out and read aloud the inscription, they proceeded on their way.

After another hour, the dark forest on either side receded, scattered
trees, some of them isolated oaks, others birches, and clumps of bushes,
received them and accompanied them onward, and after a short while the
children were running down through the meadows of the valley of
Millsdorf.

Although this valley is not as high, by far, as the valley of Gschaid
and so much warmer that they could begin harvesting two weeks earlier
than in Gschaid, the ground was frozen here too; and when the children
had come to the tannery and the fulling-mill of their grandfather,
pretty little cakes of ice were lying on the road where it was
frequently spattered by drops from the wheels. That is usually a great
pleasure for children.

Grandmother had seen them coming and had gone to meet them. She took
Sanna by her cold little hands and led her into the room.

She made them take off their heavy outer garments, ordered more wood to
be put in the stove, and asked them what had happened on the way over.

When they had told her she said: "That's nice and good, and I am very
glad that you have come again; but today you must be off early, the day
is short and it is growing colder. Only this morning there was no frost
in Millsdorf."

"Not in Gschaid, either," said the boy.

"There you see. On that account you must hurry so that you will not grow
too cold in the evening," said grandmother.

Then she asked how mother was and how father was, and whether anything
particular had happened in Gschaid.

After having questioned them she devoted herself to the preparation of
dinner, made sure that it would be ready at an earlier time than usual,
and herself prepared tidbits for the children which she knew would give
them pleasure. Then the master dyer was called. Covers were set on the
table for the children as for grown-up people and then they ate with
grandfather and grandmother, and the latter helped them to particularly
good things. After the meal, she stroked Sanna's cheeks which had grown
quite red, meanwhile.

Thereupon she went busily to and fro packing the boy's knapsack till it
was full and, besides, stuffed all kinds of things into his pockets.
Also in Sanna's little pockets she put all manner of things. She gave
each a piece of bread to eat on the way and in the knapsack, she said,
there were two more pieces of wheat bread, in case they should grow too
hungry.

"For mother, I have given you some well-roasted coffee," she said, "and
in the little bottle that is stoppered and tightly wrapped up there is
also some black coffee, better than mother usually makes over at your
house. Just let her taste it; it is a veritable medicine tonic, so
strong that one swallow of it will warm up the stomach, so that the body
will not grow cold on the coldest of winter days. The other things in
the pasteboard-box and those that are wrapped up in paper in the
knapsack you are to bring home without touching."

After having talked with the children a little while longer she bade
them go.

"Take good care, Sanna," she said, "that you don't get chilled, you
mustn't get overheated. And don't you run up along the meadows and under
the trees. Probably there will be some wind toward evening, and then you
must walk more slowly. Greet father and mother and wish them a right
merry Christmas."

Grandmother kissed both children on their cheeks and pushed them through
the door. Nevertheless she herself went along, accompanied them through
the garden, let them out by the back gate, closed it behind them, and
went back into the house.

The children walked past the cakes of ice beside grandfather's mill,
passed through the fields of Millsdorf, and turned upward toward the
meadows.

When they were passing along the heights where, as has been said, stood
scattered trees and clumps of bushes there fell, quite slowly, some few
snow-flakes.

"Do you see, Sanna," said the boy, "I had thought right away that we
would have snow; do you remember, when we left home, how the sun was a
bloody red like the lamp hanging at the Holy Sepulchre; and now nothing
is to be seen of it any more, and only the gray mist is above the
tree-tops. That always means snow."

The children walked on more gladly and Sanna was happy whenever she
caught a falling flake on the dark sleeves of her coat and the flake
stayed there a long time before melting. When they had finally arrived
at the outermost edge of the Millsdorf heights where the road enters the
dark pines of the "neck" the solid front of the forest was already
prettily sprinkled by the flakes falling ever more thickly. They now
entered the dense forest which extended over the longest part of the
journey still ahead of them.

From the edge of the forest the ground continues to rise up to the point
where one reaches the red memorial post, when the road leads downward
toward the valley of Gschaid. In fact, the slope of the forest from the
Millsdorf side is so steep that the road does not gain the height by a
straight line but climbs up in long serpentines from west to east and
from east to west. The whole length of the road up to the post and down
to the meadows of Gschaid leads through tall, dense woods without a
clearing which grow less heavy as one comes down on the level again and
issues from them near the meadows of the valley of Gschaid. Indeed, the
"neck," though being only a small ridge connecting two great mountain
masses, is yet large enough to appear a considerable mountain itself if
it were placed in the plain.

The first observation the children made when entering the woods was that
the frozen ground appeared gray as though powdered with flour, and that
the beards of the dry grass-stalks standing here and there between the
trees by the road-side were weighted down with snow-flakes; while on the
many green twigs of the pines and firs opening up like hands there sat
little white flames.

"Is it snowing at home, too, I wonder?" asked Sanna. "Of course,"
answered the boy, "and it is growing colder, too, and you will see that
the whole pond is frozen over by tomorrow."

"Yes, Conrad," said the girl.

She hastened her steps to keep up with the boy striding along.

They now continued steadily up along the serpentines, now from west to
east and again from east to west. The wind predicted by grandmother did
not come; on the contrary, the air was so still that not a branch or
twig was moving. In fact, it seemed warmer in the forest, as, in
general, loose bodies with air-spaces between, such as a forest, are in
winter. The snow-flakes descended ever more copiously so that the ground
was altogether white already and the woods began to appear dappled with
gray, while snow lay on the garments of the children.

Both were overjoyed. They stepped upon the soft down, and looked for
places where there was a thicker layer of it, in order to tread on them
and make it appear as if they were wading in it already. They did not
shake off the snow from their clothes.

A great stillness had set in. There was nothing to be seen of any bird
although some do flit to and fro through the forest in winter-time and
the children on their way to Millsdorf had even heard some twitter. The
whole forest seemed deserted.

As theirs were the only tracks and the snow in front of them was untrod
and immaculate they understood that they were the only ones crossing the
"neck" that day.

They proceeded onward, now approaching, now leaving the trees. Where
there was dense undergrowth they could see the snow lying upon it.

Their joy was still growing, for the flakes descended ever more densely,
and after a short time they needed no longer to search for places to
wade in the snow, for it was so thick already that they felt it soft
under their soles and up around their shoes. And when all was so silent
and peaceful it seemed to them that they could hear the swish of the
snow falling upon the needles.

"Shall we see the post today?" asked the girl, "because it has fallen
down, you know, and then the snow will fall on it and the red color will
be white."

"We shall be able to see it though, for that matter," replied the boy;
"even if the snow falls upon it and it becomes white all over we are
bound to see it, because it is a thick post, and because it has the
black iron cross on its top which will surely stick out."

"Yes, Conrad."

Meanwhile, as they had proceeded still farther, the snowfall had become
so dense that they could see only the very nearest trees.

No hardness of the road, not to mention its ruts, was to be felt, the
road was everywhere equally soft with snow and was, in fact,
recognizable only as an even white band running on through the forest.
On all the branches there lay already the beautiful white covering.

The children now walked in the middle of the road, furrowing the snow
with their little feet and proceeding more slowly as the walking became
more tiresome. The boy pulled up his jacket about his throat so that no
snow should fall in his neck, and pulled down his hat so as to be more
protected. He also fastened his little sister's neckerchief which her
mother had given her to wear over her shoulders, pulling it forward over
her forehead so that it formed a roof.

The wind predicted by grandmother still had not come, on the other hand,
the snowfall gradually became so dense that not even the nearest trees
were to be recognized, but stood there like misty sacks.

The children went on. They drew up their shoulders and walked on.

Sanna took hold of the strap by which Conrad had his calfskin bag
fastened about his shoulders and thus they proceeded on their way.

They still had not reached the post. The boy was not sure about the
time, because the sun was not shining and all was a monotonous gray.

"Shall we reach the post soon?" asked the girl.

"I don't know," said the boy, "I can't see the trees today and recognize
the way, because it is so white. We shall not see the post at all,
perhaps, because there is so much snow that it will be covered up and
scarcely a blade of grass or an arm of the black cross will show. But
never mind. We just continue on our road, and the road goes between the
trees and when it gets to the spot where the post stands it will go
down, and we shall keep on it, and when it comes out of the trees we are
already on the meadows of Gschaid, then comes the path, and then we
shall not be far from home."

"Yes, Conrad," said the girl.

They proceeded along their road which still led upward. The footprints
they left behind them did not remain visible long, for the extraordinary
volume of the descending snow soon covered them up. The snow no longer
rustled, in falling upon the needles, but hurriedly and peacefully added
itself to the snow already there. The, children gathered their garments
still more tightly about them, in order to keep the steadily falling
snow from coming in on all sides.

They walked on very fast, and still the road led upward. After a long
time they still had not reached the height on which the post was
supposed to be, and from where the road was to descend toward Gschaid.

Finally the children came to a region where there were no more trees.

"I see no more trees," said Sanna.

"Perhaps the road is so broad that we cannot see them on account of the
snow," answered the boy.

"Yes, Conrad," said the girl.

After a while the boy remained standing and said: "I don't see any trees
now myself, we must have got out of the woods, and also the road keeps
on rising. Let us stand still a while and look about, perhaps we may see
something." But they perceived nothing. They saw the sky only through a
dim space. Just as in a hailstorm gloomy fringes hang down over the
white or greenish swollen clouds, thus it was here, and the noiseless
falling continued. On the ground they saw only a round spot of white and
nothing else.

"Do you know, Sanna," said the boy, "we are on the dry grass I often led
you up to in summer, where we used to sit and look at the pasture-land
that leads up gradually and where the beautiful herbs grow. We shall now
at once go down there on the right."

"Yes, Conrad."

"The day is short, as grandmother said, and as you well know yourself,
and so we must hurry."

"Yes, Conrad," said the girl.

"Wait a little and I will fix you a little better," replied the boy.

He took off his hat, put it on Sanna's head and fastened it with both
ribbons under her chin. The kerchief she had worn protected her too
little, while on his head there was such a mass of dense curls that the
snow could fall on it for a long time before the wet and cold would
penetrate. Then he took off his little fur-jacket and drew it over her
little arms. About his own shoulders and arms which now showed the bare
shirt he tied the little kerchief Sauna had worn over her chest and the
larger one she had had over her shoulders. That was enough for himself,
he thought, and if he only stepped briskly he should not be cold.

He took the little girl by her hand, so they marched on. The girl with
her docile little eyes looked out into the monotonous gray round about
and gladly followed him, only her little hurrying feet could not keep up
with his, for he was striding onward like one who wanted to decide a
matter once for all.

Thus they proceeded with the unremitting energy children and animals
have as they do not realize how far their strength will carry them, and
when their supply of it will give out.

But as they went on they did not notice whether they were going down or
up. They had turned down to the right at once, but they came again to
places that led up. Often they encountered steep places which they were
forced to avoid, and a trench in which they continued led them about in
a curve. They climbed heights which grew ever steeper as they proceeded,
and what they thought led downward was level ground, or it was a
depression, or the way went on in an even stretch.

"Where are we, I wonder, Conrad?" asked the girl.

"I don't know," he answered. "If I only could see something with my
eyes," he continued, "that I could take my direction from."

But there was nothing about them but the blinding white, white
everywhere which drew an ever narrowing circle about them, passing,
beyond it, into a luminous mist descending in bands which consumed and
concealed all objects beyond, until there was nothing but the
unceasingly descending snow.

"Wait, Sanna," said the boy, "let us stand still for a moment and
listen, perhaps we might hear a sound from the valley, a dog, or a bell,
or the mill, or a shout, something we must hear, and then we shall know
which way to go."

So they remained standing, but they heard nothing. They remained
standing a little longer, but nothing came, not a single sound, not the
faintest noise beside their own breath, aye, in the absolute stillness
they thought they could hear the snow as it fell on their eyelashes. The
prediction of grandmother had still not come true; no wind had arisen,
in fact, what is rare in those regions, not a breath of air was
stirring.

After having waited for a long time they went on again.

"Never mind, Sanna," said the boy, "don't be afraid, just follow me and
I shall lead you down yet.--If only it would stop snowing!"

The little girl was not faint-hearted, but lifted her little feet as
well as she could and followed him. He led her on in the white, bright,
living, opaque space.

After a time they saw rocks. Darkling and indistinct they loomed up out
of the white opaque light. As the children approached they almost bumped
against them. They rose up like walls and were quite perpendicular so
that scarcely a flake of snow could settle on them.

"Sanna, Sanna," he said, "there are the rocks, just let us keep on, let
us keep on."

They went on, had to enter in between the rocks and push on at their
base. The rocks would let them escape neither to left nor right and led
them on in a narrow path. After a while the children lost sight of them.
They got away from the rocks as unexpectedly as they had got among them.
Again, nothing surrounded them but white, no more dark forms interposed.
They moved in what seemed a great brightness and yet could not see three
feet ahead, everything being, as it were, enveloped in a white darkness,
and as there were no shadows no opinion about the size of objects was
possible. The children did not know whether they were to descend or
ascend until some steep slope compelled their feet to climb.

"My eyes smart," said Sanna.

"Don't look on the snow," answered the boy, "but into the clouds. Mine
have hurt a long time already; but it does not matter, because I must
watch our way. But don't be afraid, I shall lead you safely down to
Gschaid."

"Yes, Conrad."

They went on; but wheresoever they turned, whichever way they turned,
there never showed a chance to descend. On either side steep acclivities
hemmed them in, and also made them constantly ascend. Whenever they
turned downward the slopes proved so precipitous that they were
compelled to retreat. Frequently they met obstacles and often had to
avoid steep slopes.

They began to notice that whenever their feet sank in through the new
snow they no longer felt the rocky soil underneath but something else
which seemed like older, frozen snow; but still they pushed onward and
marched fast and perseveringly. Whenever they made a halt everything was
still, unspeakably still. When they resumed their march they heard the
shuffling of their feet and nothing else; for the veils of heaven
descended without a sound, and so abundantly that one might have seen
the snow grow. The children themselves were covered with it so that they
did not contrast with the general whiteness and would have lost each
other from sight had they been separated but a few feet.

A comfort it was that the snow was as dry as sand so that it did not
adhere to their boots and stockings or cling and wet them.

At last they approached some other objects. They were gigantic fragments
lying in wild confusion and covered with snow sifting everywhere into
the chasms between them. The children almost touched them before seeing
them. They went up to them to examine what they were.

It was ice--nothing but ice.

There were snow-covered slabs on whose lateral edges the smooth green
ice became visible; there were hillocks that looked like heaped-up
foam, but whose inward-looking crevices had a dull sheen and lustre as
if bars and beams of gems had been flung pellmell. There rose rounded
hummocks that were entirely enveloped in snow, slabs and other forms
that stood inclined or in a perpendicular position, towering as high as
houses or the church of Gschaid. In some, cavities were hollowed out
through which one could insert an arm, a head, a body, a whole big wagon
full of hay. All these were jumbled together and tilted so that they
frequently formed roofs or eaves whose edges the snow overlaid and over
which it reached down like long white paws. Nay, even a monstrous black
boulder as large as a house lay stranded among the blocks of ice and
stood on end so that no snow could stick to its sides. And even larger
ones which one saw only later were fast in the ice and skirted the
glacier like a wall of debris.

"There must have been very much water here, because there is so much
ice," remarked Sanna.

"No, that did not come from any water," replied her brother, "that is
the ice of the mountain which is always on it, because that is the way
things are."

"Yes, Conrad," said Sanna.

"We have come to the ice now," said the boy; "we are on the mountain,
you know, Sanna, that one sees so white in the sunshine from our garden.
Now keep in mind what I shall tell you. Do you remember how often we
used to sit in the garden, in the afternoon, how beautiful it was, how
the bees hummed about us, how the linden-trees smelled sweet, and how
the sun shone down on us?"

"Yes, Conrad, I remember."

"And then we also used to see the mountain. We saw how blue it was, as
blue as the sky, we saw the snow that is up there even when we had
summer-weather, when it was hot and the grain ripened."

"Yes, Conrad."

"And below it where the snow stopped one sees all sorts of colors if one
looks close--green, blue, and whitish--that is the ice; but it only
looks so small from below, because it is so very far away. Father said
the ice will not go away before the end of the world. And then I also
often saw that there was blue color below the ice and thought it was
stones, or soil and pasture-land, and then come the woods, and they go
down farther and farther, and there are some boulders in them too, and
then come meadows that are already green, and then the green
leafy-woods, and then our meadow-lands and fields in the valley of
Gschaid. Do you see now, Sanna, as we are at the ice we shall go down
over the blue color, and through the forests in which are the boulders,
and then over the pasture-land, and through the green leafy-forests, and
then we shall be in the valley of Gschaid and easily find our way to the
village."

"Yes, Conrad," said the girl.

The children now entered upon the glacier where it was accessible. They
were like wee little pricks wandering among the huge masses.

As they were peering in under the overhanging slabs, moved as it were by
an instinct to seek some shelter, they arrived at a trench, broad and
deeply furrowed, which came right out of the ice. It looked like the bed
of some torrent now dried up and everywhere covered with fresh snow. At
the spot where it emerged from the ice there yawned a vault of ice
beautifully arched above it. The children continued in the trench and,
entering the vault, went in farther and farther. It was quite dry and
there was smooth ice under their feet. All the cavern, however, was
blue, bluer than anything else in the world, more profoundly and more
beautifully blue than the sky, as blue as azure glass through which a
bright glow is diffused. There were more or less heavy flutings, icicles
hung down pointed and tufted, and the passage led inward still farther,
they knew not how far; but they did not go on. It would also have been
pleasant to stay in this grotto, it was warm and no snow could come in;
but it was so fearfully blue that the children took fright and ran out
again. They went on a while in the trench and then clambered over its
side.

They passed along the ice, as far as it was possible to edge through
that chaos of fragments and boulders.

"We shall now have to pass over this, and then we shall run down away
from the ice," said Conrad.

"Yes," said Sanna and clung to him.

From the ice they took a direction downward over the snow which was to
lead them into the valley. But they were not to get far. Another river
of ice traversed the soft snow like a gigantic wall bulging up and
towering aloft and, as it were, reaching out with its arms to the right
and the left. It was covered by snow on top, but at its sides there were
gleams of blue and green and drab and black, aye, even of yellow and
red. They could now see to larger distances, as the enormous and
unceasing snowfall had abated somewhat and was only as heavy as on
ordinary snowy days. With the audacity of ignorance they clambered up on
the ice in order to cross the interposing tongue of the glacier and to
descend farther behind it. They thrust their little bodies into every
opening, they put their feet on every projection covered by a white
snow-hood, whether ice or rock, they aided their progress with their
hands, they crept where they could not walk, and with their light bodies
worked themselves up until they had finally gained the top of the wall.

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