me pain?" I could see how she wanted it, and that she spoke so
only to seem to refuse it. Then I imagined her blushing, with her
hands raised, saying, "Joseph, now I know indeed that you love me!"
And she would embrace me with tears in her eyes. I felt very happy.
Aunt Gredel approved of all. In a word, a thousand such scenes passed
through my mind, and when I retired at night I thought: "There is no
one as happy as you, Joseph. See what a present you can make Catharine
by your toil; and she surely is preparing something for your birthday,
for she thinks only of you; you are both very happy, and, when you are
married, all will go well."

While I was thus working on, thinking only of happiness, the winter
began, earlier than usual, toward the commencement of November. It did
not begin with snow, but with dry, cold weather and heavy frosts. In a
few days all the leaves had fallen and the earth was hard as ice and
all covered with hoar-frost; tiles, pavement, and window-panes
glittered with it. Fires had to be made that winter to keep the cold
from coming in at the windows, and, when the doors were opened for a
moment, the heat seemed to disappear at once. The wood crackled in the
stoves and burnt away like straw in the fierce draught of the chimneys.

Every morning I hastened to wash the panes of the shop-window with warm
water, and I scarcely closed it when a frosty sheen covered it.
Without, people ran puffing with their coat-collars over their ears and
their hands in their pockets. No one stood still, and when doors
opened, they soon closed.

I don't know what became of the sparrows, whether they were dead or
living, but not one twittered in the chimneys, and save the reveille
and retreat sounded in the barracks, no noise broke the silence.

Often when the fire crackled merrily, did Monsieur Goulden stop his
work, and, gazing on the frost-covered panes, exclaim:

"Our poor soldiers! our poor soldiers!"

He said this so mournfully that I felt a choking in my throat as I
replied:

"But, Monsieur Goulden, they ought now to be in Poland in good
barracks; for to suppose that human beings could endure a cold like
this--it is impossible."

"Such a cold as this," he said; "yes, here it is cold, very cold from
the winds from the mountains; but what is this frost to that of the
north, of Russia and of Poland? God grant that they started early
enough. My God! my God! the leaders of men have a heavy weight to