You must keep your home going, for some day there will be peace and your man will come back from the wars.' I kissed the children, shook the woman's hand, and went off down the clearing.

They had cried 'Auf Wiedersehen,' but it wasn't likely I would ever see them again.
The snow had all gone, except in patches in the deep hollows.

The ground was like a full sponge, and a cold rain drifted in my eyes.
After half an hour's steady trudge the trees thinned, and presently I came out on a knuckle of open ground cloaked in dwarf junipers.

And there before me lay the plain, and a mile off a broad brimming river.
I sat down and looked dismally at the prospect.

The exhilaration of my discovery the day before had gone.