Alas! alas! if we had only gone to sleep as usual, the one with his arm about the other! Amidst the horror of the moment, a strange conviction flashed across my mind, that I had gone through the very same once before.
I rushed out of the house, I knew not why, sobbing and crying bitterly.
I ran through the fields in aimless distress, till, passing the old barn, I caught sight of a red mark on the door.

The merest trifles sometimes rivet the attention in the deepest misery; the intellect has so little to do with grief.

I went up to look at this mark, which I did not remember ever to have seen before.

As I looked at it, I thought I would go in and lie down amongst the straw, for I was very weary with running about and weeping.

I opened the door; and there in the cottage sat the old woman as I had left her, at her spinning-wheel.
"I did not expect you quite so soon," she said, as I shut the door behind me.