Page:The House Without Windows.djvu/143

 out of the hollow and on to the solid rock covered a deep snow, into which she sank at every step. Mother mile she trudged. along, pulling herself through it. And still the mighty peak retreated before her, so that she could make no progressor, at least, it seemed so. It seemed as far away and as faint in the snowy distance as from where she had been when the night had come ona dreaming peak caressed with fingers of mist.

At last the ground went up abruptly again. However steep, Eepersip found it much easier, being there wasn't so much snow. It rose and rose, becoming more gradual, until she stood on another high peak, looking off over a tremendous range of mountains. Large flakes of snow were falling gently, so that she could not see much of these. She thought that she was now on the highest peak, and she sat down to wait for the snow to cease and give her a clear view. After a time it did; and then, and not until then, she saw another peak, the true summit of the mountain, going up, up, and up on the other side of a deep valley into which she would have to descend. After sucking a few handfuls of the pure mountain snow, she set off with a light heart and a happy spirit, her feet falling fast through the light drifts. After a while she got down into the valley; and here she came upon a