hat the grass grew thick out of the bones
of a skeleton, through the white ribs and out of the sightless eyes.
And he saw that each of the tussocks marked the grave of a man.

Then he came higher still, and the ground felt like iron below his
feet; and over him came a dreadful drowsiness, till his only thought
was to lie down and sleep; his breath came out like a white cloud and
hung round him, and yet he saw the hill rising in front. Then he
marked something lie beside the track; and he saw that it was a man
down upon his face, wrapped in a cloak. He tried to lift him up, but
the body seemed stiff and cold, and the face was frozen to the ground;
and when he raised it the dirt was all hard upon the face. So he left
it lying and went on. At last he could go no farther; all was grey and
still round him, covered with a bleak hoar-frost. To left and right he
saw figures lying, grey and frozen, so that the place was like a
battlefield; and still the mountain towered up pitilessly in front; he
sank upon his knees and tried to think, but his brain was all
benumbed. Then he put his face to the ground, and his breath made a
kind of warmth about him, while the cold ate into his limbs; but as he
lay he heard a groan, and looking up he saw a figure that lay close to
the track rise upon its knees and sink down again.

So Ralph struggled again to his feet with the thought that if he must
die he would like to die near another man; and he came up to the
figure; and he saw that it was a boy, younger than himself, wrapped in
a cloak. His hat had fallen off, and he could see his curls all
frosted over a cheek that was smooth and blue with cold. By his side
lay a little coffer and a staff, like his own. And Ralph, speaking
with difficulty through frozen lips, said, "And what do you here? You
are too young to be here." The other turned his face upon him, all
drawn with anguish, and said, "Help me, help me; I have lost my way."
And Ralph sate down beside him and gathered the boy's body into his
arms; and it seemed as though the warmth revived him, for the boy
looked gratefully at him and said, "So I am not alone in this dreadful
place."

Then Ralph said to him that there was no time to be lost, and that
they were near their end. "But it seems to me," he added, "that a
little farther up the grass looks greener, as if the cold were not so
bitter there; let us try to help each other a few paces farther, if we
may avoid death for a little." S