five o'clock in the afternoon
It mattered not how many logs one laid in the fireplace , the heat spread no farther than to the edge of the hearth . One day , when the winter was at its worst , Jan decided that instead of going out to his work he would stay at home and help Katrina keep the fire alive . Neither he nor the wife ventured outside the hut that day , and the longer they remained indoors the more they felt the cold . At five o'clock in the afternoon , when it began to grow dark , Katrina said they might as well `` turn in '' ; it was no good their sitting up any longer , torturing themselves . During the afternoon Jan had gone over to the window , time and again , and peered out through a little corner of a pane that had remained clear , though the rest of the glass was thickly crusted with frost flowers . And now he went back there again . `` You can go to bed , Katrina dear , '' he said as he stood looking out , `` but I 've got to stay up a while longer . ''