d not answer, but looked out to see if the fire was lighting; the
embers burnt well; I heard the chimney draw, and at once all blazed up.
The sound of the flames was merry enough, but it required a good
half-hour to feel the air any warmer.

At last I arose and dressed myself. Monsieur Goulden kept on chatting,
but I thought only of Catharine, and when at length, toward eight
o'clock, I started out, he exclaimed:

"Joseph, what are you thinking of? Are you going to Quatre-Vents in
that little coat? You would be dead before you had got half way. Go
into my closet, and take my great cloak, and the mittens, and the
double-soled shoes lined with flannel."

I was so smart in my fine clothes that I reflected whether it would be
better to follow his advice, and he, seeing my hesitation, said:

"Listen! a man was found frozen yesterday on the way to Wecham. Doctor
Steinbrenner said that he sounded like a piece of dry wood when they
tapped upon him. He was a soldier, and had left the village between
six and seven o'clock, and at eight they found him; so that the frost
did not take long to do its work. If you want your nose and ears
frozen, you have only to go out as you are."

I knew then, that he was right; so I put on the thick shoes, and passed
the cord of the mittens over my shoulders, and put the cloak over all.
Thus accoutred, I sallied forth, after thanking Monsieur Goulden, who
warned me not to stay too late, for the cold increased toward night,
and great numbers of wolves were crossing the Rhine on the ice.

I had not gone as far as the church when I turned up the fox-skin
collar of the cloak to shield my ears. The cold was so keen that it
seemed as though the air were filled with needles, and one's body
shrank involuntarily from head to foot.

Under the German gate, I saw the soldier on guard, in his great gray
mantle, standing back in his box like a saint in his niche; he had his
sleeve wrapped about his musket where he held it, to keep his fingers
from the iron, and two long icicles hung from his mustaches. No one
was on the bridge, not even the toll-gatherer, but a little farther on,
I saw three carts in the middle of the road with their canvas-tops all
covered and glistening with frost; they were unharnessed and abandoned.
Everything in the distance seemed dead; all living things had hidden
themselves from the cold; and I could hear nothing but the snow
crunching under my feet. Running along the ce