Together in the Snow

It happened about sixty years ago. There was a small family in the mountains of Austria—a poor minister of the church with his wife and children, high up under a big layer of snow. There was no electricity, no telephone, no radio. In the kitchen they had a pump which remained frost-free. In the shed behind the house they had three milch-goats and four chickens. The village was in the next valley far from their house. That winter a lot of snow had fallen and fresh layers were added almost...