uired for the
current expenses of the day, and no prospect for the future.

Many remained sitting with him till he had finished the work they had
brought him to do, thus keeping him a prisoner in his own house, and
yet he could not venture to send them away. Others took home their
unfinished goods with hard and cruel words. "This can no longer go on,
some substantial succour must be found," said Lenz to Annele; "I must
again feel solid ground under my feet." She nodded slightly, but
already the strong will within him inspired him with new strength.

Early next morning Lenz resolved to visit his mother's relatives, who
lived on the other side of the valley; they would certainly help him,
they had always been so proud of him, that they could not let him be
entirely swamped.

Just as he arrived on the mountain ridge, day dawned, the stars in the
sky grew pale, and Lenz gazed at the spacious snow covered region.
Nowhere a symptom of life. Why should I live either? An expression
taken from his sleepless nights, to signify total want of sleep,
recurred to his memory--a _white sleep_--here it is! This feverish mood
of his dreams made his cheeks burn, and an icy blast rushed over the
heights.

Lenz was startled out of his reverie, by the wind carrying away his hat
down a steep precipice. Lenz was hurrying after it, but he suddenly saw
that he was rushing to certain death. It crossed his mind that it would
be a good thing if he were to lose his life by an accident; but he
shuddered at such cowardly thoughts.

The hail and snow continued incessantly, almost blinding him; even the
crows in the air could scarcely guide their flight, being first hurled
upwards, and then again dashed down, and those birds, usually flying
along so steadily, fluttered their wings in wild terror and dismay.

Lenz struggled manfully along against snow and wind, and at last he
breathed freer. There the smoke from houses is rising.

Lenz entered the first farmhouse.

"Oh! Lenz! welcome! how glad I am that you have not forgotten me!" said
a tall, stout woman, as he came in; she was standing at the hearth, and
had just broken up a thick branch of a tree; "what have you done with
your hat?"

"Oh! now I recognize you--so it is you, Kathrine? You are grown stout.
I come to you as a beggar."

"Oh! Lenz, not so bad as that I hope?"

"But it is indeed," said Lenz, smiling bitterly. He can even jest on
such a subject. "You must lend me, or give me, an