candles.

The boy had thought one could very quickly come down from the mountain
and yet, not a single one of the lights burning that night in the valley
shone up to them. They saw nothing but the pale snow and the dark sky,
all else was rendered invisible by the distance. At this hour, the
children in all valleys were receiving their Christmas presents. These
two alone sat up there by the edge of the glacier and the finest
presents meant for them on this day lay in little sealed packages in the
calfskin bag in the rear of the cave.

The snow-clouds had sunk below the mountains on all sides and a vault
entirely dark-blue, almost black, full of densely clustered burning
stars extended above the children; and through the midst of them was
woven a shimmering broad milky band which they had, indeed, seen also
below in the valley, but never so distinctly. The night was advancing.
The children did not know that the stars change their position and move
toward the west, else they might have recognized the hour of night by
their progress. New stars came and the old ones disappeared, but they
believed them to be always the same. It grew somewhat brighter about the
children by the radiance of the stars; but they saw no valley, no known
places, but everywhere white--only white. Only some dark peak, some dark
knob became visible looming up out of the shimmering waste. The moon was
nowhere to be seen in the heavens, perhaps it had set early with the
sun, or it had not yet risen.

After a long time the boy said: "Sanna, you must not sleep; for do you
remember what father said, that if one sleeps in the mountains one will
freeze to death, as the old hunter slept and sat four months dead on
that stone and no one had known where he was."

"No, I shall not sleep," said the little girl feebly. Conrad had shaken
her by a corner of her coat, in order to make her listen to his words.

Then there was silence again.

After a little while, the boy felt a soft pressure against his arm which
became ever heavier. Sanna had fallen asleep and had sunk over toward
him.

"Sanna, don't sleep, please, don't sleep!" he said.

"No," she mumbled drowsily, "I shall not sleep."

He moved farther away from her, in order to make her move; she toppled
over and would have continued sleeping on the ground. He took hold of
her shoulder and shook her. As he moved a little more, he noticed that
he was feeling cold himself and that his arm had grown numb. H