m, hardened by the frost, were
sharp as glass, and cut his skin. He became colder, but the infant was
warmer. That which he lost was not thrown away, but was gained by her.
He found out that the poor infant enjoyed the comfort which was to her
the renewal of life. He continued to advance.

From time to time, still holding her securely, he bent down, and taking
a handful of snow he rubbed his feet with it, to prevent their being
frost-bitten. At other times, his throat feeling as if it were on fire,
he put a little snow in his mouth and sucked it; this for a moment
assuaged his thirst, but changed it into fever--a relief which was an
aggravation.

The storm had become shapeless from its violence. Deluges of snow are
possible. This was one. The paroxysm scourged the shore at the same time
that it uptore the depths of ocean. This was, perhaps, the moment when
the distracted hooker was going to pieces in the battle of the breakers.

He travelled under this north wind, still towards the east, over wide
surfaces of snow. He knew not how the hours had passed. For a long time
he had ceased to see the smoke. Such indications are soon effaced in the
night; besides, it was past the hour when fires are put out. Or he had,
perhaps, made a mistake, and it was possible that neither town nor
village existed in the direction in which he was travelling. Doubting,
he yet persevered.

Two or three times the little infant cried. Then he adopted in his gait
a rocking movement, and the child was soothed and silenced. She ended by
falling into a sound sleep. Shivering himself, he felt her warm. He
frequently tightened the folds of the jacket round the babe's neck, so
that the frost should not get in through any opening, and that no melted
snow should drop between the garment and the child.

The plain was unequal. In the declivities into which it sloped the snow,
driven by the wind into the dips of the ground, was so deep, in
comparison with a child so small, that it almost engulfed him, and he
had to struggle through it half buried. He walked on, working away the
snow with his knees.

Having cleared the ravine, he reached the high lands swept by the winds,
where the snow lay thin. Then he found the surface a sheet of ice. The
little girl's lukewarm breath, playing on his face, warmed it for a
moment, then lingered, and froze in his hair, stiffening it into
icicles.

He felt the approach of another danger. He could not afford to fall. H