, except
in the deep well close to the church. A crowd of women and girls were
standing round the well, and when the pitchers were too full, so that
the water ran over, there was a great outcry, for the water froze so
quickly that it made the ground like slippery ice. The early sun peeped
forth for a minute into the valley, but apparently the sight did not
please him, for he quickly disappeared again behind the clouds. The
fields and meadows were glittering brightly with morning hoarfrost, a
chilling sight; for everything freezes quickly when without a
sheltering cover of snow. A thick surface of snow, however, lay on the
hills.

"God be praised; you will see that these clouds will bring honest snow
at last, today!"

"A blessing for the fields, for it is a sorrow to see them so yellow."

"We have always hitherto had snow at Christmas, and sledging at the New
Year--" this was the kind of talk round the well. The words of the
speakers issued like vapoury clouds from their lips.

"Is it true?" said an elderly woman to Martina when she joined them,
"Is it true that our pastor was called to your mother-in-law's last
night?"

"I think," said another, "that Roettmann would have no objection to saw
up the tree that killed Vincent, and to make a coffin of it for his
tigress."

"A very good thing if she were to take herself off, and then you would
get your Adam."

"And then we should have a quiet Roettmaennin instead of a fierce one."

"If I were you, I would pray the old woman to death. The tailor of
Knuslingen knows a prayer, by which you can pray a person to death."

"No, no; you must curse them to death."

This was the discursive talk that went round. Martina, who had filled
her pitcher with water, and lifted it on her head, only replied, "Don't
speak in so godless a way, remember that tonight is Christmas Eve."

She went slowly homewards, as if the words, that still sounded in her
ears, made her linger behind, and she shivered when it occurred to her
that perhaps little Joseph had a presentiment of what was going on so
far from him, and that this had made him so restless. She had inwardly
reproached Adam with not suffering as she did, and at that very hour,
he was perhaps enduring the most severe trial that can befall any human
being--that of seeing the person you love best on earth draw their last
breath with bitter hatred in their soul.

The group of women standing round the well seemed to be in no hurry,
f