"
"Strange enough!" answered his neighbor, blinking over his pipe, and
knocking down some of the icicles pendent from his roof. "But maybe it
is to curse him with the undying curse of the godly."
"She's done that all her life," said the first speaker.
"That's true! She's been a faithful servant of the Gospel. All's right
with her in the next world--she'll die easily."
"Was it for her the Death-Arch shone?" asked an old woman, suddenly
thrusting her head, wrapped in a red woollen hood, out of a low doorway,
through which the light of a fire sparkled from the background, sending
vivid flashes across the snow.
The man who had spoken last shook his head solemnly.
"The Death-Arch never shone for a Christian yet," he said gravely. "No!
There's something else in the wind. We can't see it--but it will
come--it must come! That sign never fails."
And presently, tired of watching the waiting sledge and the passive
Laplander, he retreated within his house, shutting his door against the
darkness and the bitter wind.
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