instead, and put on her clothes.

"Wait a minute!" she said, when Jan was at the door. "If you're
going out into the woods to-night, then I want to go with you."

She feared Jan would raise objections, but he didn't; he remained
at the door till she was ready. Though apparently anxious to be
off, he seemed more controlled and rational than he had been all
day.

And what a night to venture out into! The cold came against them
like a rain of piercing and cutting glass-splinters. Their skins
smarted and they felt as if their noses were being torn from their
faces; their fingertips ached and their toes were as if they had
been cut off; they hardly knew they had any toes.

Jan uttered no word of complaint, neither did Katrina; they just
tramped on and on. Jan turned in on the winter-road across the
heights, the one they had traversed with Glory Goldie one Christmas
morning when she was so little she had to be carried.

There was a clear sky and in the west gleamed a pale crescent moon,
so that the night was far from pitch dark. Still it was difficult
to keep to the road because everything was so white with snow; time
after time they wandered too close to the edge and sank deep into a
drift. Nevertheless, they managed to make their way clear to the
huge stone that had once been hurled by a giant at Svartsjö church.
Jan had already got past it when Katrina, who was a little way
behind him, gave a shriek.