46 Fairy Tales

on other parts were stretched soft skins
and furs, and grey eider-down rugs. Per-
haps it was only that Jacob was sleepy,
but through the gloom he seemed to catch
dim shifting forms of old familiar things;
there, certainly, he had a glimpse of a
snow man which the winter before he and
the other boys had built up in the play-
ground, while Réschen sat in a window
and clapped her hands; and after that came
a flickering of lights, and the branches of
a Christmas tree with glass balls and gay
streamers floated into sight, and with it
he remembered that while all the other
children had presents from their fathers
and mothers and brothers and sisters, he
would have had none, if Rdschen had not
knitted him a soft warm comforter. It
was round his neck now, for he put up
his hand to feel, and the very thought of
it made his heart swell. Then the shadows
vanished, and he saw that round the cave
were hung spreading antlers, and the teeth
of huge mammoths, and many curious