They say that long ago a village stood in a mountain valley, until one spring the river rose and covered it for ever. Only the village bell was saved. It hung on a post on the north shore of the new lake, and nobody rang it any more.
Ilka, a shepherd girl of twelve, lived with her grandfather Bela, who had one rule for her: "Never cross the frozen lake after dark. The ice is thin where the old village lies." But one evening a lamb ran away, and by the time Ilka had caught it, the sun was going down. To save an hour, she drove her twenty sheep onto the ice.
In the middle, the fog fell and she could not see either shore. The ice groaned and cracked, and the animals began to cry. Ilka wanted to run, but she remembered another of her grandfather's rules: "When you are lost, stand still and listen." So she stood still. Far away, a deep bell began to ring.
She walked towards the sound, and the ice held; whenever she drifted away from it, the ice cracked beneath her. The bell hung quietly on its post, and nobody was near it. Ilka counted her sheep: twenty, lamb included. Then Bela came running with a lantern. "I did not ring it," he said. "Nobody did."
To this day, the children of the valley learn one thing before any other: when the fog comes, stand still and listen.
