Micro R&D 1/MicroRD-CD-ROM-Vol1-1994.iso/books/hawthorn/snowimag

Text File | 1992-12-02 | 36KB | 571 lines

                                      1850
                                TWICE-TOLD TALES
                       THE SNOW-IMAGE: A CHILDISH MIRACLE
                             by Nathaniel Hawthorne

   ONE AFTERNOON of a cold winter's day, when the sun shone forth with
chilly brightness, after a long storm, two children asked leave of
their mother to run out and play in the new-fallen snow. The elder
child was a little girl, whom, because she was of a tender and
modest disposition, and was thought to be very beautiful, her parents,
and other people who were familiar with her, used to call Violet.
But her brother was known by the style and title of Peony, on
account of the ruddiness of his broad and round little phiz, which
made everybody think of sunshine and great scarlet flowers. The father
of these two children, a certain Mr. Lindsey, it is important to
say, was an excellent but exceedingly matter-of-fact sort of man, a
dealer in hardware, and was sturdily accustomed to take what is called
the common-sense view of all matters that came under his
consideration. With a heart about as tender as other people's, he
had a head as hard and impenetrable, and therefore, perhaps, as empty,
as one of the iron pots which it was a part of his business to sell.
The mother's character, on the other hand, had a strain of poetry in
it, a trait of unworldly beauty- a delicate and dewy flower, as it
were, that had survived out of her imaginative youth, and still kept
itself alive amid the dusty realities of matrimony and motherhood.
   So, Violet and Peony, as I began with saying, besought their mother
to let them run out and play in the new snow; for, though it had
looked so dreary and dismal, drifting downward out of the gray sky, it
had a very cheerful aspect, now that the sun was shining on it. The
children dwelt in a city, and had no wider play-place than a little
garden before the house, divided by a white fence from the street, and
with a pear-tree and two or three plum-trees overshadowing it, and
some rose-bushes just in front of the parlor windows. The trees and
shrubs, however, were now leafless, and their twigs were enveloped
in the light snow, which thus made a kind of wintry foliage, with here
and there a pendent icicle for the fruit.
   "Yes, Violet- yes, my little Peony," said their kind mother; "you
may go out and play in the new snow."
   Accordingly, the good lady bundled up her darlings in woollen
jackets and wadded sacks, and put comforters round their necks, and
a pair of striped gaiters on each little pair of legs, and worsted
mittens on their hands, and gave them a kiss apiece, by way of a spell
to keep away Jack Frost. Forth sallied the two children, with a
hop-skip-and-jump, that carried them at once into the very heart of
a huge snow-drift, whence Violet emerged like a snow-bunting, while
little Peony floundered out with his round face in full bloom. Then
what a merry time had they! To look at them, frolicking in the
wintry garden, you would have thought that the dark and pitiless storm
had been sent for no other purpose but to provide a new plaything
for Violet and Peony; and that they themselves had been created, as
the snow-birds were, to take delight only in the tempest, and in the
white mantle which it spread over the earth.
   At last, when they had frosted one another all over with handfuls
of snow, Violet, after laughing heartily at little Peony's figure, was
struck with a new idea.
   "You look exactly like a snow-image, Peony," said she, "if your
cheeks were not so red. And that puts me in mind! Let us make an image
out of snow- an image of a little girl- and it shall be our sister and
shall run about and play with us all winter long. Won't it be nice?"
   "O, yes!" cried Peony, as plainly as he could speak, for he was but
a little boy. "That will be nice! And mamma shall see it!"
   "Yes," answered Violet; "mamma shall see the new little girl. But
she must not make her come into the warm parlor; for, you know, our
little snow-sister will not love the warmth."
   And forthwith the children began this great business of making a
snow-image that should run about; while their mother, who was
sitting at the window and overheard some of their talk, could not help
smiling at the gravity with which they set about it. They really
seemed to imagine that there would be no difficulty whatever in
creating a live little girl out of the snow. And, to say the truth, if
miracles are ever to be wrought, it will be by putting our hands to
the work in precisely such a simple and undoubting frame of mind as
that in which Violet and Peony now undertook to perform one, without
so much as knowing that it was a miracle. So thought the mother; and
thought, likewise, that the new snow, just fallen from heaven, would
be excellent material to make new beings of, if it were not so very
cold. She gazed at the children a moment longer, delighting to watch
their little figures- the girl, tall for her age, graceful and
agile, and so delicately colored that she looked like a cheerful
thought, more than a physical reality- while Peony expanded in breadth
rather than height, and rolled along on his short and sturdy legs,
as substantial as an elephant, though not quite so big. Then the
mother resumed her work. What it was I forget; but she was either
trimming a silken bonnet for Violet, or darning a pair of stockings
for little Peony's short legs. Again, however, and again, and yet
other agains, she could not help turning her head to the window, to
see how the children got on with their snow-image.
   Indeed, it was an exceedingly pleasant sight, those bright little
souls at their tasks! Moreover, it was really wonderful to observe how
knowingly and skilfully they managed the matter. Violet assumed the
chief direction, and told Peony what to do, while, with her own
delicate fingers, she shaped out all the nicer parts of the
snow-figure. It seemed, in fact, not so much to be made by the
children, as to grow up under their hands, while they were playing and
prattling about it. Their mother was quite surprised at this; and
the longer she looked, the more and more surprised she grew.
   "What remarkable children mine are!" thought she, smiling with a
mother's pride; and smiling at herself, too, for being so proud of
them. "What other children could have made anything so like a little
girl's figure out of snow, at the first trial? Well- but now I must
finish Peony's new frock, for his grandfather is coming tomorrow,
and I want the little fellow to look handsome."
   So she took up the frock, and was soon as busily at work again with
her needle as the two children with their snow-image. But still, as
the needle travelled hither and thither through the seams of the
dress, the mother made her toil light and happy by listening to the
airy voices of Violet and Peony. They kept talking to one another
all the time, their tongues being quite as active as their feet and
hands. Except at intervals, she could not distinctly hear what was
said, but had merely a sweet impression that they were in a most
loving mood, and were enjoying themselves highly, and that the
business of making the snow-image went prosperously on. Now and
then, however, when Violet and Peony happened to raise their voices,
the words were as audible as if they had been spoken in the very
parlor, where the mother sat. O, how delightfully those words echoed
in her heart, even though they meant nothing so very wise or
wonderful, after all!
   But you must know a mother listens with her heart, much more than
with her ears; and thus she is often delighted with the trills of
celestial music, when other people can hear nothing of the kind.
   "Peony, Peony!" cried Violet to her brother, who had gone to
another part of the garden, "bring me some of that fresh snow,
Peony, from the very furthest corner, where we have not been
trampling. I want it to shape our little snow-sister's bosom with. You
know that part must be quite pure, just as it came out of the sky!"
   "Here it is, Violet!" answered Peony, in his bluff tone- but a very
sweet tone, too- as he came floundering through the half-trodden
drifts. "Here is the snow for her little bosom. O, Violet, how
beau-ti-ful she begins to look!"
   "Yes," said Violet, thoughtfully and quietly; "our snow-sister does
look very lovely. I did not quite know, Peony, that we could make such
a sweet little girl as this."
   The mother, as she listened, thought how fit and delightful an
incident it would be, if fairies, or, still better, if
angel-children were to come from paradise, and play invisibly with her
own darlings, and help them to make their snow-image, giving it the
features of celestial babyhood! Violet and Peony would not be aware of
their immortal playmates only they would see that the image grew
very beautiful while they worked at it, and would think that they
themselves had done it all.
   "My little girl and boy deserve such playmates, if mortal
children ever did!" said the mother to herself; and then she smiled
again at her own motherly pride.
   Nevertheless, the idea seized upon her imagination; and, ever and
anon, she took a glimpse out of the window, half dreaming that she
might see the golden-haired children of paradise sporting with her own
golden-haired Violet and bright-cheeked Peony.
   Now, for a few moments, there was a busy and earnest, but
in-distinct hum of the two children's voices, as Violet and Peony
wrought together with one happy consent. Violet still seemed to be the
guiding spirit, while Peony acted rather as a laborer, and brought her
the snow from far and near. And yet the little urchin evidently had
a proper understanding of the matter, too!
   "Peony, Peony!" cried Violet; for her brother was again at the
other side of the garden. "Bring me those light wreaths of snow that
have rested on the lower branches of the pear-tree. You can clamber on
the snow-drift, Peony, and reach them easily. I must have them to make
some ringlets for our snow-sister's head!"
   "Here they are, Violet!" answered the little boy. "Take care you do
not break them. Well done! Well done! How pretty!"
   "Does she not look sweetly?" said Violet, with a very satisfied
tone; "and now we must have some little shining bits of ice, to make
the brightness of her eyes. She is not finished yet. Mamma will see
how very beautiful she is; but papa will say, 'Tush! nonsense!- come
in out of the cold!'"
   "Let us call mamma to look out," said Peony; and then he shouted
lustily, "Mamma! mamma!! mamma!!! Look out, and see what a nice 'ittle
girl we are making!
   The mother put down her work, for an instant, and looked out of the
window. But it so happened that the sun- for this was one of the
shortest days of the whole year- had sunken so nearly to the edge of
the world, that his setting shine came obliquely into the lady's eyes.
So she was dazzled, you must understand, and could not very distinctly
observe what was in the garden. Still, however, through all that
bright, blinding dazzle of the sun and the new snow, she beheld a
small white figure in the garden, that seemed to have a wonderful deal
of human likeness about it. And she saw Violet and Peony- indeed,
she looked more at them than at the image- she saw the two children
still at work; Peony bringing fresh snow, and Violet applying it to
the figure as scientifically as a sculptor adds clay to his model.
Indistinctly as she discerned the snow-child, the mother thought to
herself that never before was there a snow-figure so cunningly made,
nor ever such a dear little girl and boy to make it.
   "They do everything better than other children," said she, very
complacently. "No wonder they make better snow-images!"
   She sat down again to her work, and made as much haste with it as
possible; because twilight would soon come, and Peony's frock was
not yet finished, and grandfather was expected, by railroad, pretty
early in the morning. Faster and faster, therefore, went her flying
fingers. The children, likewise, kept busily at work in the garden,
and still the mother listened, whenever she could catch a word. She
was amused to observe now their little imaginations had got mixed up
with what they were doing, and were carried away by it. They seemed
positively to think that the snow-child would run about and play
with them.
   "What a nice playmate she will be for us, all winter long!" said
Violet. "I hope papa will not be afraid of her giving us a cold!
Shan't you love her dearly, Peony?"
   "O, yes!" cried Peony. "And I will hug her, and she shall sit
down close by me, and drink some of my warm milk!"
   "O, no, Peony!" answered Violet, with grave wisdom. "That will
not do at all. Warm milk will not be wholesome for our little
snow-sister. Little snow-people, like her, eat nothing but icicles.
No, no, Peony; we must not give her anything warm to drink!"
   There was a minute or two of silence; for Peony, whose short legs
were never weary, had gone on a pilgrimage again to the other side
of the garden. All of a sudden, Violet cried out, loudly and joyfully,
"Look here, Peony! Come quickly! A light has been shining on her cheek
out of that rose-colored cloud! and the color does not go away! Is not
that beautiful?"
   "Yes; it is beau-ti-ful," answered Peony, pronouncing the three
syllables with deliberate accuracy. "O, Violet, only look at her hair!
It is all like gold!"
   "O, certainly," said Violet, with tranquillity, as if it were
very much a matter of course. "That color, you know, comes from the
golden clouds, that we see up there in the sky. She is almost finished
now. But her lips must be made very red- redder than her cheeks.
Perhaps, Peony, it will make them red, if we both kiss them!"
   Accordingly, the mother heard two smart little smacks, as if both
her children were kissing the snow-image on its frozen mouth. But,
as this did not seem to make the lips quite red enough, Violet next
proposed that the snow-child should be invited to kiss Peony's scarlet
cheek.
   "Come, 'ittle snow-sister, kiss me!" cried Peony.
   "There! she has kissed you," added Violet, "and now her lips are
very red. And she blushed a little, too!"
   "O, what a cold kiss!" cried Peony.
   Just then, there came a breeze of the pure west wind, sweeping
through the garden and rattling the parlor windows. It sounded so
wintry cold, that the mother was about to tap on the window-pane
with her thimbled finger, to summon the two children in, when they
both cried out to her with one voice. The tone was not a tone of
surprise, although they were evidently a good deal excited; it
appeared rather as if they were very much rejoiced at some event
that had now happened, but which they had been looking for, and had
reckoned upon all along.
   "Mamma! mamma! We have finished our little snow-sister, and she
is running about the garden with us!"
   "What imaginative little beings my children are!" thought the
mother, putting the last few stitches into Peony's frock. "And it is
strange, too, that they make me almost as much a child as they
themselves are! I can hardly help believing, now, that the
snow-image has really come to life!"
   "Dear mamma!" cried Violet, "pray look out and see what a sweet
playmate we have!"
   The mother, being thus entreated, could no longer delay to look
forth from the window. The sun was now gone out of the sky, leaving,
however, a rich inheritance of his brightness among those purple and
golden clouds which make the sunsets of winter so magnificent. But
there was not the slightest gleam or dazzle, either on the window or
on the snow; so that the good lady could look all over the garden, and
see everything and everybody in it. And what do you think she saw
there? Violet and Peony, of course, her own two darling children.
Ah, but whom or what did she besides? Why, if you will believe me,
there was a small figure of a girl, dressed all in white, with
rose-tinged cheeks and ringlets of golden hue, playing about the
garden with the two children! A stranger though she was, the child
seemed to be on as familiar terms with Violet and Peony, and they with
her, as if all the three had been playmates during the whole of
their little lives. The mother thought to herself that it must
certainly be the daughter of one of the neighbors, and that, seeing
Violet and Peony in the garden, the child had run across the street to
play with them. So this kind lady went to the door, intending to
invite the little runaway into her comfortable parlor; for, now that
the sunshine was withdrawn, the atmosphere, out of doors, was
already growing very cold.
   But, after opening the house-door, she stood an instant on the
threshold, hesitating whether she ought to ask the child to come in,
or whether she should even speak to her. Indeed, she almost doubted
whether it were a real child, after all, or only a light wreath of the
new-fallen snow, blown hither and thither about the garden by the
intensely cold west wind. There was certainly something very
singular in the aspect of the little stranger. Among all the
children of the neighborhood, the lady could remember no such face,
with its pure white, and delicate rose-color, and the golden
ringlets tossing about the forehead and cheeks. And as for her
dress, which was entirely of white, and fluttering in the breeze, it
was such as no reasonable woman would put upon a little girl, when
sending her out to play, in the depth of winter. It made this kind and
careful mother shiver only to look at those small feet, with nothing
in the world on them, except a very thin pair of white slippers.
Nevertheless, airily as she was clad, the child seemed to feel not the
slightest inconvenience from the cold, but danced so lightly over
the snow that the tips of her toes left hardly a print in its surface;
while Violet could but just keep pace with her, and Peony's short legs
compelled him to lag behind.
   Once, in the course of their play, the strange child placed herself
between Violet and Peony, and taking a hand of each, skipped merrily
forward, and they along with her. Almost immediately, however, Peony
pulled away his little fist, and began to rub it as if the fingers
were tingling with cold; while Violet also released herself, though
with less abruptness, gravely remarking that it was better not to take
hold of hands. The white-robed damsel said not a word, but danced
about, just as merrily as before. If Violet and Peony did not choose
to play with her, she could make just as good a playmate of the
brisk and cold west wind, which kept blowing her all about the garden,
and took such liberties with her, that they seemed to have been
friends for a long time. All this while, the mother stood on the
threshold, wondering how a little girl could look so much like a
flying snow-drift, or how a snow-drift could look so very like a
little girl.
   She called Violet, and whispered to her.
   "Violet, my darling, what is this child's name?" asked she. "Does
she live near us?"
   "Why, dearest mamma," answered Violet, laughing to think that her
mother did not comprehend so very plain an affair, "this is our little
snow-sister, whom we have just been making!"
   "Yes, dear mamma," cried Peony, running to his mother, and
looking up simply into her face. "This is our snow-image! Is it not
a nice 'ittle child?"
   At this instant a flock of snow-birds came flitting through the
air. As was very natural, they avoided Violet and Peony. But- and this
looked strange- they flew at once to the white-robed child,
fluttered eagerly about her head, alighted on her shoulders, and
seemed to claim her as an old acquaintance. She, on her part, was
evidently as glad to see these little birds, old Winter's
grandchildren, as they were to see her, and welcomed them by holding
out both her hands. Hereupon, they each and all tried to alight on her
two palms and ten small fingers and thumbs, crowding one another
off, with an immense fluttering of their tiny wings. One dear little
bird nestled tenderly in her bosom; another put its bill to her
lips. They were as joyous, all the while, and seemed as much in
their element, as you may have seen them when sporting with a
snow-storm.
   Violet and Peony stood laughing at this pretty sight; for they
enjoyed the merry time which their new playmate was having with
these small-winged visitants, almost as much as if they themselves
took part in it.
   "Violet," said her mother, greatly perplexed, "tell me the truth,
without any jest. Who is this little girl?"
   "My darling mamma," answered Violet, looking seriously into her
mother's face, and apparently surprised that she should need any
further explanation, "I have told you truly who she is. It is our
little snow-image, which Peony and I have been making. Peony will tell
you so, as well as I."
   "Yes, mamma," asseverated Peony, with much gravity in his crimson
little phiz; "this is 'ittle snow-child. Is not she a nice one? But,
mamma, her hand is, oh, so very cold!"
   While mamma still hesitated what to think and what to do, the
street-gate was thrown open, and the father of Violet and Peony
appeared, wrapped in a pilot-cloth sack, with a fur cap drawn down
over his ears, and the thickest of gloves upon his hands. Mr.
Lindsey was a middle-aged man, with a weary and yet a happy look in
his wind-flushed and frost-pinched face, as if he had been busy all
the day long, and was glad to get back to his quiet home. His eyes
brightened at the sight of his wife and children, although he could
not help uttering a word or two of surprise, at finding the whole
family in the open air, on so bleak a day, and after sunset too. He
soon perceived the little white stranger, sporting to and fro in the
garden, like a dancing snow-wreath, and the flock of snow-birds
fluttering about 14 her head.
   "Pray, what little girl may that be?" inquired this very sensible
man. "Surely her mother must be crazy, to let her go out in such
bitter weather as it has been today, with only that flimsy white gown,
and those thin slippers!"
   "My dear husband," said his wife, "I know no more about the
little thing than you do. Some neighbor's child, I suppose. Our Violet
and Peony," she added, laughing at herself for repeating so absurd a
story, "insist that she is nothing but a snow-image, which they have
been busy about in the garden, almost all the afternoon."
   As she said this, the mother glanced her eyes toward the spot where
the children's snow-image had been made. What was her surprise, on
perceiving that there was not the slightest trace of so much labor!-
no image at all!- no piled-up heap of snow!- nothing whatever, save
the prints of little footsteps around a vacant space!
   "This is very strange!" said she.
   "What is strange, dear mother?" asked Violet. "Dear father, do
not you see how it is? This is our snow-image, which Peony and I
have made, because we wanted another playmate. Did not we, Peony?"
   "Yes, papa," said crimson Peony. "This be our 'ittle snow-sister.
Is she not beau-ti-ful? But she gave me such a cold kiss!"
   "Poh, nonsense, children!" cried their good, honest father, who, as
we have already intimated, had an exceedingly common-sensible way of
looking at matters. "Do not tell me of making live figures out of
snow. Come, wife; this little stranger must not stay out in the
bleak air a moment longer. We will bring her into the parlor; and
you shall give her a supper of warm bread and milk, and make her as
comfortable as you can. Meanwhile, I will inquire among the neighbors;
or, if necessary, send the city-crier about the streets, to give
notice of a lost child."
    So saying, this honest and very kind-hearted man was going
toward the little white damsel, with the best intentions in the world.
But Violet and Peony, each seizing their father by the hand, earnestly
besought him not to make her come in.
    "Dear father," cried Violet, putting herself before him, "it is
true what I have been telling you! This is our little snow-girl, and
she cannot live any longer than while she breathes the cold west wind.
Do not make her come into the hot room!"
   "Yes, father, shouted Peony, stamping his little foot, so
mightily was he in earnest, "this be nothing but our 'ittle
snow-child! She will not love the hot fire!"
   "Nonsense, children, nonsense, nonsense!" cried the father, half
vexed, half laughing at what he considered their foolish obstinacy.
"Run into the house, this moment! It is too late to play any longer,
now. I must take care of this little girl immediately, or she will
catch her death-a-cold!"
   "Husband! dear husband!" said his wife, in a low voice- for she had
been looking narrowly at the snow-child, and was more perplexed than
ever- "there is something very singular in all this. You will think me
foolish- but- but- may it not be that some invisible angel has been
attracted by the simplicity and good faith with which our children set
about their undertaking? May he not have spent an hour of his
immortality in playing with those dear little souls? and so the result
is what we call a miracle. No, no! Do not laugh at me; I see what a
foolish thought it is!"
   "My dear wife," replied the husband, laughing heartily, "you are as
much a child as Violet and Peony."
   And in one sense so she was, for all through life she had kept
her heart full of childlike simplicity and faith, which was as pure
and clear as crystal; and, looking at all matters through this
transparent medium, she sometimes saw truths so profound, that other
people laughed at them as nonsense and absurdity.
   But now kind Mr. Lindsey had entered the garden, breaking away from
his two children, who still sent their shrill voices after him,
beseeching him to let the snow-child stay and enjoy herself in the
cold west wind. As he approached, the snow-birds took to flight. The
little white damsel, also, fled backward, shaking her head, as if to
say, "Pray, do not touch me!" and roguishly, as it appeared, leading
him through the deepest of the snow. Once, the good man stumbled,
and floundered down upon his face, so that, gathering himself up
again, with the snow sticking to his rough pilot-cloth sack, he looked
as white and wintry as a snow-image of the largest size. Some of the
neighbors, meanwhile, seeing him from their windows, wondered what
could possess poor Mr. Lindsey to be running about his garden in
pursuit of a snow-drift, which the west wind was driving hither and
thither! At length, after a vast deal of trouble, he chased the little
stranger into a corner, where she could not possibly escape him. His
wife had been looking on, and, it being nearly twilight, was
wonder-struck to observe how the snow-child gleamed and sparkled,
and how she seemed to shed a glow all round about her; and when driven
into the corner, she positively glistened like a star! It was a frosty
kind of brightness, too, like that of an icicle in the moonlight.
The wife thought it strange that good Mr. Lindsey should see nothing
remarkable in the snow-child's appearance.
   "Come, you odd little thing!" cried the honest man, seizing her
by the hand, I have caught you at last, and will make you
comfortable in spite of yourself. We will put a nice warm pair of
worsted stockings on your frozen little feet, and you shall have a
good thick shawl to wrap yourself in. Your poor white nose, I am
afraid, is actually frost-bitten. But we will make it all right.
Come along in."
   And so, with a most benevolent smile on his sagacious visage, all
purple as it was with the cold, this very well-meaning gentleman
took the snow-child by the hand and led her towards the house. She
followed him, droopingly and reluctant; for all the glow and sparkle
was gone out of her figure; and whereas just before she had
resembled a bright, frosty, star-gemmed evening, with a crimson
gleam on the cold horizon, she now looked as dull and languid as a
thaw. As kind Mr. Lindsey led her up the steps of the door, Violet and
Peony looked into his face- their eyes full of tears, which froze
before they could run down their cheeks- and again entreated him not
to bring their snow-image into the house.
   "Not bring her in!" exclaimed the kind-hearted man. "Why, you are
crazy, my little Violet!- quite crazy, my small Peony! She is so cold,
already, that her hand has almost frozen mine, in spite of my thick
gloves. Would you have her freeze to death?"
   His wife, as he came up the steps, had been taking another long,
earnest, almost awe-stricken gaze at the little white stranger. She
hardly knew whether it was a dream or no; but she could not help
fancying that she saw the delicate print of Violet's fingers on the
child's neck. It looked just as if, while Violet was shaping out the
image, she had given it a gentle pat with her hand, and had
neglected to smooth the impression quite away.
   "After all, husband," said the mother, recurring to her idea that
the angels would be as much delighted to play with Violet and Peony as
she herself was, "after all, she does look strangely like a
snow-image! I do believe she is made of snow!"
   A puff of the west wind blew against the snow-child, and again
she sparkled like a star.
   "Snow!" repeated good Mr. Lindsey, drawing the reluctant guest over
his hospitable threshold. "No wonder she looks like snow. She is
half frozen, poor little thing! But a good fire will put everything to
rights."
   Without further talk, and always with the same best intentions,
this highly benevolent and common-sensible individual led the little
white damsel- drooping, drooping, drooping, more and more- out of
the frosty air, and into his comfortable parlor. A Heidenberg stove,
filled to the brim with intensely burning anthracite, was sending a
bright gleam through the isinglass of its iron door, and causing the
vase of water on its top to fume and bubble with excitement. A warm,
sultry smell was diffused throughout the room. A thermometer on the
wall furthest from the stove stood at eighty degrees. The parlor was
hung with red curtains, and covered with a red carpet, and looked just
as warm as it felt. The difference betwixt the atmosphere here and the
cold, wintry twilight out of doors, was like stepping at once from
Nova Zembla to the hottest part of India, or from the North Pole
into an oven. O, this was a fine place for the little white stranger!
   The common-sensible man placed the snow-child on the hearth-rug,
right in front of the hissing and fuming stove.
   "Now she will be comfortable!" cried Mr. Lindsey, rubbing his hands
and looking about him, with the pleasantest smile you ever saw.
"Make yourself at home, my child."
   Sad, sad and drooping, looked the little white maiden, as she stood
on the hearth-rug, with the hot blast of the stove striking through
her like a pestilence. Once, she threw a glance wistfully toward the
windows, and caught a glimpse, through its red curtains, of the
snow-covered roofs, and the stars glimmering frostily, and all the
delicious intensity of the cold night. The bleak wind rattled the
window-panes, as if it were summoning her to come forth. But there
stood the snow-child, drooping, before the hot stove!
   But the common-sensible man saw nothing amiss.
   "Come, wife," said he, "let her have a pair of thick stockings
and a woollen shawl or blanket directly; and tell Dora to give her
some warm supper as soon as the milk boils. You, Violet and Peony,
amuse your little friend. She is out of spirits, you see, at finding
herself in a strange place. For my part, I will go around among the
neighbors, and find out where she belongs."
   The mother, meanwhile, had gone in search of the shawl and
stockings; for her own view of the matter, however subtle and
delicate, had given way, as it always did, to the stubborn materialism
of her husband. Without heeding the remonstrances of his two children,
who still kept murmuring that their little snow-sister did not love
the warmth, good Mr. Lindsey took his departure, shutting the parlor
door carefully behind him. Turning up the collar of his sack over
his ears, he emerged from the house, and had barely reached the
street-gate, when he was recalled by the screams of Violet and
Peony, and the rapping of a thimbled finger against the parlor window.
   "Husband! husband!" cried his wife, showing her horror-stricken
face through the window-panes. "There is no need of going for the
child's parents!"
   "We told you so, father!" screamed Violet and Peony, as he
reentered the parlor. "You would bring her in; and now our poor- dear-
beau-ti-ful little snow-sister is thawed!"
   And their own sweet little faces were already dissolved in tears;
so that their father, seeing what strange things occasionally happen
in this every-day world, felt not a little anxious lest his children
might be going to thaw too! In the utmost perplexity, he demanded an
explanation of his wife. She could only reply, that, being summoned to
the parlor by the cries of Violet and Peony, she found no trace of the
little white maiden, unless it were the remains of a heap of snow,
which, while she was gazing at it, melted quite away upon the
hearth-rug.
   "And there you see all that is left of it!" added she, pointing
to a pool of water, in front of the stove.
   "Yes, father, said Violet, looking reproachfully at him, through
her tears, "there is all that is left of our dear little snow-sister!"
   "Naughty father!" cried Peony, stamping his foot, and- I shudder to
say- shaking his little fist at the common-sensible man. "We told
you how it would be! What for did you bring her in?"
   And the Heidenberg stove, through the isinglass of its door, seemed
to glare at good Mr. Lindsey, like a red-eyed demon, triumphing in the
mischief which it had done!
   This, you will observe, was one of those rare cases, which yet will
occasionally happen, where common-sense finds itself at fault. The
remarkable story of the snow-image, though to that sagacious class
of people to whom good Mr. Lindsey belongs it may seem but a
childish affair, is, nevertheless, capable of being moralized in
various methods, greatly for their edification. One of its lessons,
for instance, might be, that it behooves men, and especially men of
benevolence, to consider well what they are about, and, before
acting on their philanthropic purposes, to be quite sure that they
comprehend the nature and all the relations of the business in hand.
What has been established as an element of good to one being may prove
absolute mischief to another; even as the warmth of the parlor was
proper enough for children of flesh and blood, like Violet and
Peony- though by no means very wholesome, even for them- but
involved nothing short of annihilation to the unfortunate snow-image.
   But, after all, there is no teaching anything to wise men of good
Mr. Lindsey's stamp. They know everything- oh, to be sure!- everything
that has been, and everything that is, and everything that, by any
future possibility, can be. And, should some phenomenon of nature or
providence transcend their system, they will not recognize it, even if
it come to pass under their very noses.
   "Wife," said Mr. Lindsey, after a fit of silence, "see what a
quantity of snow the children have brought in on their feet! It has
made quite a puddle here before the stove. Pray tell Dora to bring
some towels and sop it up!"


                        THE END