nele, as several clocks struck three.

"It must be night."

They rehearsed together all that had happened since the avalanche, and
concluded it must be past midnight.

"O Day! if I could once, but once again, behold the sun! rise and help
me, Sun!" was Annele's constant cry. "I will live, I must live for long
years yet. If a single day could but undo such great misery! but it
will need years. I will persevere faithfully and patiently." There was
no quieting her till presently she dropped asleep.

Petrovitsch too slept, leaving to Lenz his solitary watch. He dared not
sleep; he must face this threatening death, and avert it if he could.
He extinguished the light to save their precious store of brandy, for
they could not tell how long it might be needed. As he sat gazing into
the darkness, one moment he thought it was day, the next that it must
be night; now one was a comfort to him, now the other. If it was day,
help was nearer; if night, the work of forcing a passage through the
snow and gravel and fallen trees had been going on the longer.

At times he seemed to hear a sound without; it was only seeming. There
was no sound save the raven croaking in his sleep.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

A PHALANX.

At noon of that same Sunday Faller started for the Morgenhalde to tell
Lenz the good news about his house. It was impossible to see his way
before him, so fiercely did the snow and rain beat against his face. He
plodded along with his head down till he supposed his place of
destination must be nearly reached, when he looked up and rubbed his
eyes in wonder and consternation. Where was he? had he lost his way?
where was Lenz's house? There were the pine-trees that stood by it, but
the house, the house! In his excitement he lost the path and fell into
a deep snow-drift, into which all his efforts to extricate himself only
made him sink the deeper. He cried in vain for help; no one heard him.
He had just strength left to work his way along to a tree, by whose
branches he clung till a fresh avalanche from above bore the snow away
from under him and left him free. By following the clearing which the
avalanche had made in its descent he succeeded in reaching the valley.
It was already dark, and the lights were shining from the houses as he
ran through the village, crying, "Help! help!" in a tone loud enough to
wake the seven sleepers. All hastened to the windows or