ck specks suddenly appeared in
among the pale smoke clouds. These specks whirled round each other
with such rapidity that to Jan's eyes they looked like a succession
of streaks moving in much the same way as when bees swarm.

They were birds of course. The strange part of it was that they had
risen in the night and soared into the clouds.

They probably knew more than the human kind, thought Jan, for they
had sensed that something was about to happen.

Instead of the air becoming cooler, as on other nights, it grew
warmer and warmer. Anything else was hardly to be expected, with
the fiery dome coming nearer and nearer. Jan thought it had already
sunk to the brow of Great Peak.

But if the end of the world was so close at hand and there was no
hope of his getting any word from Glory Goldie, much less of his
seeing her, before all was over, then he would pray for but a
single grace--that it might be made clear to him what he had done
to offend her, so that he could repent of it before the end of
everything pertaining to the earth life. What had he done that she
could not forgive nor forget? Why had the crown and sceptre been
taken away from him?

As he put these queries to himself his glance fell upon a bit of
gilt paper that lay glittering on the ground in front of him. But
his mind was not on such things now. This must have been one of the
paper stars he had borrowed of Mad Ingeborg. But he had not given
a thought to this empty show since last autumn.

It kept getting hotter and hotter, and it was becoming more and
more difficult to breathe. "The end is nearing," thought Jan.
"Maybe it's just as well it wasn't too long coming."

A great sense of lassitude came over him. Unable to sit up any
longer, he slipped down off the stone and stretched himself out on
the ground. He felt it was hardly fair to Katrina not to let her
know what was taking place. But Katrina had gone to the seine-maker's
party and was not back yet. If he only had the strength to drag
himself thither! He would have liked to say a word of farewell to
Ol' Bengtsa, too. He was very glad when he presently saw Katrina
coming down the lane, accompanied by the seine-maker. He wanted to
call out to them to hurry, but not a sound could he get past his
lips. Shortly afterward the two of them stood bending over him.

Katrina immediately ran for water and made him drink some; and then
he got back just enough strength to tell them that the Last
judgment w