,
Susanna took a water-jug, and went down to the river with it, to fetch
water for the morrow's breakfast. On the way thither she saw Harald, who
with his gun upon his shoulder, walked backwards and forwards some
little distance from the cave. Unobserved by him, she, however, came
down to the river, and filled her jug with the snow-mingled water. This
little bodily exertion did her good; but the solitary ramble was not
much calculated to enliven her spirits. The scene was indescribably
gloomy, and the monotonous murmuring of the snow-brook was accompanied
by gusts of wind, which, like giant sighs, went mournfully whistling
through the desert. She seated herself for a moment at the foot of a
rock. It was midnight, and deep silence reigned over the country. The
rocks around her were covered with mourning-lichen, and the pale
snow-lichens grew in crevices of the mountains; here and there stuck out
from the black earth-rind the bog-lichen, a little pale-yellow
sulphur-coloured flower, which the Lapland sagas use in the magic arts,
and which here gives the impression of a ghastly smile upon these fields
of death. Susanna could not free herself from the remembrance of her
dream; and wherever she turned her glance she thought that she saw the
image of her little dying sister. Perhaps in this dream she had received
a warning, perhaps a foretelling; perhaps she might never leave this
desert; perhaps she should die here, and then----what would become of
her little Hulda? Would not neglect and want let her sink upon the hard
stones of life, and the waves of misery go over her? In the midst of
these gloomy thoughts, Susanna was surprised by Harald. He saw that she
had been weeping, and asked, with a voice so kind it went to Susanna's
heart--

"Why so dejected? Are you uneasy or displeased? Ah! tell it openly to me
as a friend! I cannot bear to see you thus!"

"I have had a bad dream!" said Susanna, wiping away her tears and
standing up, "all is so ghastly, so wild here around us. It makes me
think on all the dark and sad things in the world! But it is no use
troubling oneself about them," continued she more cheerfully, "it will
be all well enough when the day dawns. It is the hour of darkness, the
hour in which the under-earth spirits have rule!" And Susanna attempted
to smile. "But what is that?" continued she, and her smile changed
itself suddenly to an expression of anxiety, which made her
involuntarily approach Harald. There