heard of violets being gathered in midwinter, Pare
under the deep snow ?P’
‘Idle hussey!’ screamed Helena; ‘go at once and USCHKA
fetch them. Have them I will, and you shail not
come back without them.’
Then the mother chimed in with, ‘Mind and bring
a large bunch, or you shall not be taken in here
for the night. Go!’ and she caught her, thrust
net from the house, and slammed the door behind
er.
Bitterly weeping, the poor maiden wandered
into the forest. The snow lay deep everywhere,
undinted by human foot; white wreaths hung on
the bushes, and the sombre pine-boughs were
frosted over with snow. Here were the traces of
a hare, there the prints of a badger. An owl
called from the depths of the forest. The girl lost
her way. Dusk came on, and a few stars looked
through the interlacing boughs overhead, watching
Maruschka. An icy wind moaned through the
trees, shaking the pines as though they quaked
with mortal fear, and then they bent their branches
and shot their loads of snow in dust to the ground.
Strange harp-like sounds reverberated through
the gloom, and gratings of bough on bough, which
seemed as though the wood demons were gnawing
at fallen timbers. Now a great black crow, which
had been brooding among dark firs and pines,
startled by the footfall and sobs of the maiden,
expanded his wings, and, with a harsh scream,
rushed away, noisily, sending the life-blood with a
leap to the girl’s heart. Suddenly, before her—far
up on a hill-top—a light appeared, ruddy and
flickering. Maruschka, inspired with hope, made
for it, scrambling up a rocky slope through deep
snow-drifts. She reached the summit, and beheld
a great fire. Around this fire were twelve rough
stones, and on each stone sata man. Three were
grey-bearded, three were middle-aged, three were
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