clasped her in his arms, kissed her forehead; then he took up the
infant and gazed lingeringly, with infinite tenderness, upon her
innocent little face.

The day was glorious; the golden sunlight streamed in through the
windows in a shining cataract, betokening the advent of spring, and
made pools of molten gold upon the floor. But the snow still lay in
all its virgin whiteness over the earth.




A YEAR OF THEIR LIVES

I


To the north, south, east, and west--in all directions for hundreds
of miles--stretched forests and bogs enveloped in a wide-spread veil
of lichen. Brown-trunked cedars and pines towered on high. Beneath
there was a thick, impenetrable jungle of firs, alders, wild-berries,
junipers, and low-hanging birches. Pungent, deep-sunken, lichen-
covered springs of reddish water were hidden amidst undergrowth in
little glades, couched in layers of turf bordered by red bilberries
and huckleberries.

With September came the frosts--fifty degrees below zero. The snow
lay everywhere--crisp and dazzling. There was daylight for three or
four hours only; the remainder of the time it was night. The sky was
lowering, and brooded darkly over the earth. There was a tense hush