! how much Rudy carried with him, as he went home the next morning
over the mountains. Yes, there were three silver goblets, two very
fine rifles and a silver coffee pot, which one could use if one wished
to go to house-keeping; but he carried with him something far, far
more important, far mightier, or rather _that_ carried him over the
high mountains.

The weather was raw, moist and cold, grey and heavy; the clouds
lowered over the mountain-tops like mourning veils, and enveloped the
shining peaks of the rocks. The sound of the axe resounded from the
depths of the forest, and the trunks of the trees rolled down the
mountain, looking in the distance like slight sticks, but on
approaching them they were heavy trees, suitable for making masts. The
Luetschine rushed on with its monotonous sound, the wind blustered, the
clouds sailed by.

Suddenly a young girl approached Rudy, whom he had not noticed before;
not until she was beside him; she also was about crossing the
mountain. Her eyes had so peculiar a power that one was forced to look
into them; they were so strangely clear--clear as glass, so deep, so
fathomless--

"Have you a beloved one?" asked Rudy; for to have a beloved one was
everything to him.

"I have none!" said she, and laughed; but it was as though she was not
speaking the truth. "Do not let us take a by-way," continued she, "we
must go more to the left, that way is shorter!"

"Yes, so as to fall down a precipice!" said Rudy; "Do you know no
better way, and yet wish to be a guide?"

"I know the road well," said she, "my thoughts are with me; yours are
beneath in the valley; here on high, one must think on the Ice-Maiden,
for they say she is not well disposed to mankind!"

"I do not fear her," said Rudy, "she was forced to let me go when I
was a child, so I suppose I can slip away from her now that I am
older!"

The darkness increased, the rain fell, the snow came; it shone and
dazzled. "Give me your hand, I will help you to ascend!" said the
girl, and touched him with icy-cold fingers.

"You help me," said Rudy, "I do not yet need a woman's help in
climbing!" He strode quickly on, away from her; the snow-shower
formed a curtain around him, the wind whistled by him and he heard the
young girl laugh and sing; it sounded so oddly! Yes, that was
certainly a spirit in the service of the Ice-Maiden. Rudy had heard of
them, when he had passed a night on high; when he had crossed the
mountain, as a lit