w and the sun sets very soon."

"Yes, I know, mother," said Conrad.

"And take good care of Sanna that she does not fall or get over-heated."

"Yes, mother."

"Well, then, God bless you, now go to father and tell him you are
leaving."

The boy slung a bag of calfskin, artfully sewed by his father, about his
shoulders by a strap and the children went into the adjoining room to
say farewell to their father. Soon they issued again and merrily skipped
along the village street, after their mother had once more made the sign
of the cross over them.

Quickly they passed over the square and along the rows of houses, and
finally between the railings of the orchards out into the open. The sun
already stood above the wooded heights that were woven through with
milky wisps of cloud, and its dim reddish disk proceeded along with them
through the leafless branches of the crab-apple trees.

There was no snow in the whole valley, but the higher mountains that had
been glistening with it for many weeks already were thoroughly covered.
The lower ridges, however, remained snowless and silent in the mantle of
their pine forests and the fallow red of their bare branches. The ground
was not frozen yet and would have been entirely dry, after the long dry
period that had been prevailing, if the cold of the season had not
covered it with a film of moisture. This did not render the ground
slippery, however, but rather firm and resilient so that the children
made good progress. The scanty grass still standing on the meadows and
especially along the ditches in them bore the colors of autumn. There
was no frost on the ground and a closer inspection did not reveal any
dew, either, which signifies rain, according to the country people.

Toward the edge of the meadows there was a mountain brook over which led
a high, narrow wooden bridge. The children walked over it and looked
down. There was hardly any water in the brook, only a thin streak of
intensely blue color wound through the dry white pebbles of its stony
bed, and both the small amount and the color of the water indicated that
cold was prevailing in the greater altitudes; for this rendered the soil
on the mountains dry so that it did not make the water of the brook
turbid and hardened the ice so that it could give off but a few clear
drops.

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