"Yes, men."
Thousands of years pass, as it were one minute.
"Well, and what now?" asks the Jungfrau.
"I seem to see fewer of the little beetles," thunders the Finsteraarhorn. "Things have become clearer down below; the waters have contracted; the forests have grown thinner."
More thousands of years pass, as it were one minute.
"What dost thou see?" says the Jungfrau.
"Things seem to have grown clearer round us, close at hand," replies the Finsteraarhorn; "well, and yonder, far away, in the valleys there is still a spot, and something is moving."
"And now?" inquires the Jungfrau, after other thousands of years, which are as one minute.
"Now it is well," replies the Finsteraarhorn; "it is clean everywhere, quite white, wherever one looks…. Everywhere is our snow, level snow and ice. Everything is congealed. It is well now, and calm."
"Good," said the Jungfrau.—"But thou and I have chattered enough, old fellow. It is time to sleep."