were. He had to wear the same clothes both week days and Sundays; the
same even in the summer that he wore in the winter.

It was now midwinter, when everything was wrapped in snow and glazed
with ice, while the north winds sang loud and whistled down the
chimneys, played very roughly with the bare trees, and crept through
every crack and crevice of the house. The frost, too, was busy pinching
the cheeks and biting the toes of the boys, and making them run, jump
and dance to keep warm.

The children were wild with the excitement and the joy that was astir at
this time. For there were secrets in the air. Every one was busy making
gifts for some loved one.

It was the night before Christmas, the one great birthday on which the
whole world rejoiceth and when all endeavor to make their fellow men
happy.

The schoolmaster and all of his pupils started for the midnight worship
and prayer at the church. All of the boys were well clothed, with heavy
coats, fur caps, thick mittens, and very heavy and warm shoes. But
little Hans had only a poor, plain, ragged suit, with no overcoat, no
mittens, and his shoes were only wooden ones. It was a very cold night,
and the boys and the schoolmaster had to walk very fast to keep warm.
But little Hans did not mind the cold so much, because the stars smiled
down upon him and seemed like so many diamonds set in a deep blue
canopy, each one glittering and flashing in the darkness. The snow, too,
was a sparkling mass, and Hans wondered if the stars could see
themselves reflected in the tiny snow crystals which covered the earth.