it there in the dark, groaning and lamenting:
why are you shedding tears on my hand? What do you mean? Let go my hand
that I may rise and strike a light."

"Annele, stay where you are!" Lenz could scarcely speak in his
agitation. "Annele, I had resolved to put an end to myself, and came to
take a last look at you; but now we are buried alive, and our child
with us."

"If any act of energy on your part had been required to cause this
misfortune, it never would have happened; it must have come of its own
accord."

Still, still, these bitter, irritating words--still the same sharp,
cutting tone. Lenz could scarcely draw breath.

"I must rise--I will rise," continued Annele. "I am not like you,
letting my arms hang idly by my side. Come good, or come evil, just as
it may chance, I am resolved to see what can be done. You would prefer
waiting, I suppose, till you are dug out, or the snow at last melted?
With me it is very different."

"Stay where you are, I will strike a light," answered Lenz, and went
into the next room, but before he could light a candle, Annele was
standing beside him. She had her child in her arms. He went to the
granary, but quickly returned, saying, with horror, that the roof had
given way under the weight of the snow; "And not snow alone," continued
he; "large trunks of trees have rolled down on the house, along with
the snow. That must have been the cause of the dreadful crashes we
heard."

"What care I for that? The point now is to help ourselves, and to find
some rescue."

Annele ran from window to window, and from door to door. "It cannot be!
such a misfortune is impossible!" Not till she saw that nothing yielded
to her frantic efforts, everything being as immovable as mason work,
did Annele break out into loud lamentations, and place the child on a
table. Lenz took the little girl in his arms, and begged Annele to be
patient, she having now sunk down in silence. "The cold hand of death
lies on our house," said he, "and it is no use struggling against
fate."

"Where is my boy?" said she, suddenly starting up. "Have you hid him
anywhere?"

"No; he is not here."

"God be praised! Then we are not all lost; one of us at least is safe."

"I will tell you fairly that I sent away the boy on purpose. I did not
wish him to see me murder myself. Now it has turned out differently.
God will demand our souls together. But this poor infant! it is hard it
should die with its sinful parents."

"