They walked on very fast, and still the road led upward.  After a long time they still had not reached the height on which the post was supposed to be, and from where the road was to descend toward Gschaid.

Finally the children came to a region where there were no more trees.

“I see no more trees,” said Sanna.

“Perhaps the road is so broad that we cannot see them on account of the snow,” answered the boy.

“Yes, Conrad,” said the girl.

After a while the boy remained standing and said:  “I don’t see any trees now myself, we must have got out of the woods, and also the road keeps on rising.  Let us stand still a while and look about, perhaps we may see something.”  But they perceived nothing.  They saw the sky only through a dim space.  Just as in a hailstorm gloomy fringes hang down over the white or greenish swollen clouds, thus it was here, and the noiseless falling continued.  On the ground they saw only a round spot of white and nothing else.

“Do you know, Sanna,” said the boy, “we are on the dry grass I often led you up to in summer, where we used to sit and look at the pasture-land that leads up gradually and where the beautiful herbs grow.  We shall now at once go down there on the right.”

“Yes, Conrad.”

“The day is short, as grandmother said, and as you well know yourself, and so we must hurry.”

“Yes, Conrad,” said the girl.

“Wait a little and I will fix you a little better,” replied the boy.

He took off his hat, put it on Sanna’s head and fastened it with both ribbons under her chin.  The kerchief she had worn protected her too little, while on his head there was such a mass of dense curls that the snow could fall on it for a long time before the wet and cold would penetrate.  Then he took off his little fur-jacket and drew it over her little arms.  About his own shoulders and arms which now showed the bare shirt he tied the little kerchief Sauna had worn over her chest and the larger one she had had over her shoulders.  That was enough for himself, he thought, and if he only stepped briskly he should not be cold.

He took the little girl by her hand, so they marched on.  The girl with her docile little eyes looked out into the monotonous gray round about and gladly followed him, only her little hurrying feet could not keep up with his, for he was striding onward like one who wanted to decide a matter once for all.

Thus they proceeded with the unremitting energy children and animals have as they do not realize how far their strength will carry them, and when their supply of it will give out.

But as they went on they did not notice whether they were going down or up.  They had turned down to the right at once, but they came again to places that led up.  Often they encountered steep places which they were forced to avoid, and a trench in which they continued led them about in a curve.  They climbed heights which grew ever steeper as they proceeded, and what they thought led downward was level ground, or it was a depression, or the way went on in an even stretch.