e was
frightened and jumped up. He seized his sister, shook her more
vigorously and said, "Sanna, get up a little, we want to stand up a
little so that we shall feel better."

"I am not cold, Conrad," she answered.

"Yes indeed you are, Sanna, get up," he cried.

"My fur-jacket is warm," she said.

"I shall help you up," he said.

"No," she replied, and lay still.

Then something else occurred to the boy. Grandmother had said: "Just one
little mouthful of it will warm the stomach so that one's body will not
be cold on the coldest winter day."

He reached for his little calfskin knapsack, opened it, and groped
around in it until he found the little flask into which grandmother had
put the black coffee for mother. He took away the wrappings from the
bottle and with some exertion uncorked it. Then he bent down to Sanna
and said: "Here is the coffee that grandmother sends mother, taste a
little of it, it will make you feel warm. Mother would give it to us if
she knew what we needed it for."

The little girl, who was by nature inclined to be passive, answered, "I
am not cold."

"Just take a little," urged the boy, "and then you may go to sleep
again."

This expectation tempted Sanna and she mastered herself so far that she
took a swallow of the liquor. Then the boy drank a little, too.

The exceedingly strong extract took effect at once and all the more
powerfully as the children had never in their life tasted coffee.
Instead of going to sleep, Sanna became more active and acknowledged
that she was cold, but that she felt nice and warm inside, and that the
warmth was already passing into her hands and feet. The children even
spoke a while together.

In this fashion they drank ever more of the liquor in spite of its
bitter taste as the effect of it began to die away and roused their
nerves to a fever heat which was able to counteract their utter
weariness.

It had become midnight, meanwhile. As they still were so young, and
because on every Christmas eve in the excess of their joy they went to
bed very late and only after being overcome by sleep, they never had
heard the midnight tolling, and never the organ of the church when holy
mass was being celebrated, although they lived close by. At this moment
of the Holy Night, all bells were being rung, the bells of Millsdorf
were ringing, the bells of Gschaid were ringing, and behind the mountain
there was still another church whose three bells were pealing brigh