midnight
This little bodily exertion did her good ; but the solitary ramble was not much calculated to enliven her spirits . The scene was indescribably gloomy , and the monotonous murmuring of the snow-brook was accompanied by gusts of wind , which , like giant sighs , went mournfully whistling through the desert . She seated herself for a moment at the foot of a rock . It was midnight , and deep silence reigned over the country . The rocks around her were covered with mourning-lichen , and the pale snow-lichens grew in crevices of the mountains ; here and there stuck out from the black earth-rind the bog-lichen , a little pale-yellow sulphur-coloured flower , which the Lapland sagas use in the magic arts , and which here gives the impression of a ghastly smile upon these fields of death . Susanna could not free herself from the remembrance of her dream ; and wherever she turned her glance she thought that she saw the image of her little dying sister . Perhaps in this dream she had received a warning , perhaps a foretelling ; perhaps she might never leave this desert ; perhaps she should die here , and then -- what would become of her little Hulda ?