r lasted all afternoon; then it
became a supper and continued far into the night. There was much dancing
and drinking. At midnight the parents of the bride said good-bye to her
and blessed her. The groom took her up in his arms and carried her out
to his sledge and tucked her under the blankets. He sprang in beside
her, and Pavel and Peter (our Pavel and Peter!) took the front
seat. Pavel drove. The party set out with singing and the jingle of
sleigh-bells, the groom's sledge going first. All the drivers were more
or less the worse for merry-making, and the groom was absorbed in his
bride.

The wolves were bad that winter, and everyone knew it, yet when they
heard the first wolf-cry, the drivers were not much alarmed. They had
too much good food and drink inside them. The first howls were taken
up and echoed and with quickening repetitions. The wolves were coming
together. There was no moon, but the starlight was clear on the snow. A
black drove came up over the hill behind the wedding party. The wolves
ran like streaks of shadow; they looked no bigger than dogs, but there
were hundreds of them.

Something happened to the hindmost sledge: the driver lost control--he
was probably very drunk--the horses left the road, the sledge was caught
in a clump of trees, and overturned. The occupants rolled out over the
snow, and the fleetest of the wolves sprang upon them. The shrieks that
followed made everybody sober. The drivers stood up and lashed their
horses. The groom had the best team and his sledge was lightest--all the
others carried from six to a dozen people.

Another driver lost control. The screams of the horses were more
terrible to hear than the cries of the men and women. Nothing seemed to
check the wolves. It was hard to tell what was happening in the rear;
the people who were falling behind shrieked as piteously as those who
were already lost. The little bride hid her face on the groom's shoulder
and sobbed. Pavel sat still and watched his horses. The road was clear
and white, and the groom's three blacks went like the wind. It was only
necessary to be calm and to guide them carefully.

At length, as they breasted a long hill, Peter rose cautiously and
looked back. 'There are only three sledges left,' he whispered.

'And the wolves?' Pavel asked.

'Enough! Enough for all of us.'

Pavel reached the brow of the hill, but only two sledges followed him
down the other side. In that moment on the hilltop, the