They at once struck off to the left, through a bit of old oak-forest. But it was hard work getting on, the snow being more than knee-deep here; and now and then came still worse patches, where the leafless trees were scanty and there hung down from the mighty outspread branches huge long beards of caked snow: here and there, too, some slender sapling, covered with a shaggy rusty fell of dead leaves, would bend down, striking the earth in the whistling wind. It was still blowing hard, with the air so full of snow that there was no going any farther. Old Bylitsa’s strength at once gave way, and he came to a standstill. Even Hanka felt exhausted; but she only leaned with her bundle against a tree, and sought for some better road. “We shall never get through this way. Besides, there is a marsh beyond the oak-forests. Let us go back through the fields.” They somehow made their way back to the great dense pine wood, where it was somewhat less gusty, and the snow less deep. Then they came out upon the fields. But here they were met by such a driving blizzard that they could not see a stone’s throw in front of them. The wind was constantly blowing towards the forest, whence driven back as from a wall, it rushed again into the fields, where, strong as ever, it caught up whole hillocks of snow, lifted them bodily into the air like great white clouds, which it again hurled against the trees. How it rushed to and fro in the forest! how it eddied! how fiercely it smote upon them both! and how they all but failed to reach the sown fields! The old man fell to the ground, and she had to help him on, little as she herself was able to keep standing. Back they went to the forest, where, cowering behind some trees, they took counsel together how to come back; for they could not tell in which direction to turn. “Along the pathway to the left: then we shall be sure to come out on the poplar-road, just by the cross.” “But I do not see the path at all.” He had to give detailed explanations, for she feared to go the wrong way. “And can ye tell which way to take?” “To the left, so far as I can guess.” They trudged along, skirting the wood and a little within it, to be sheltered from the assaults of the gale. “Come quickly, night is falling fast.” “I will, I will, Hanka; let me but breathe awhile.” But it was no easy matter to win through. The path was not to be seen at all; and besides, a terrible wind assailed them from one side, pouring down avalanches. They took shelter behind trees, crouched under juniper-bushes: all in vain. It pierced to the very marrow of their bones, especially when they passed through some glen: the rustling of the trees then would swell to shrieks, and the whole wood sway and rock till the branches almost touched the ground, lashing their faces at times; and now and then a young tree would fall with such a crash as one might think only a whole uprooted forest could have made.