The floor had often been
covered with charcoal outlines even before Christina was persuaded to
impart the rules she had learnt from her uncle; and her carving-tools
were soon seized upon. At first they were used only upon knobs of
sticks; but one day when the boys, roaming on the mountain, had lost
their way, and coming to the convent had been there hospitably
welcomed by Father Norbert, they came home wild to make carvings like
what they had seen in the chapel. Jobst the Kohler was continually
importuned for soft wood; the fair was ransacked for knives; and even
the old Baroness could not find great fault with the occupation, base
and mechanical though it were, which disposed of the two restless
spirits during the many hours when winter storms confined them to the
castle. Rude as was their work, the constant observation and choice
of subjects were an unsuspected training and softening. It was not
in vain that they lived in the glorious mountain fastness, and saw
the sun descend in his majesty, dyeing the masses of rock with purple
and crimson; not in vain that they beheld peak and ravine clothed in
purest snow, flushed with rosy light at morn and eve, or contrasted
with the purple blue of the sky; or that they stood marvelling at ice
caverns with gigantic crystal pendants shining with the most magical
pure depths of sapphire and emerald, "as if," said Friedel, "winter
kept in his service all the jewel-forging dwarfs of the motherling's
tales.
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