“Ah!”
They looked about them, and then at one another. There was nothing to be
seen. They looked again, and found that Snyegurka was no longer among
them.
“She has hidden herself,” cried they. Then they looked for her, but
could not find her, calling out and shouting her name, but there was no
answer.
“Where can she be? She must have gone home,” said they.
They ran back to the village, but there no one had seen Snyegurka. All
the folk searched during the next day and the day following. They went
through all the woods, they looked through every thicket, but no trace
of the child was discovered.
Ivan and Mary were inconsolable, and for a long time did the poor mother
seek her child in the woods, crying—
“Snyegurka, my sweet, come to me.”
Sometimes she thought she could hear the voice of her child replying to
her; but no, it was not Snyegurka.
“What could have become of her?” folk asked one another; “can a wild
beast have carried her off into the woods? Has some bird of prey flown
off with her?”
No beast had carried her off, nor had a bird flown away with her. When
she began to run with her companions she suddenly changed into a light
vapour, and was carried up to heaven.
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