Part 3 (1/2)

He will often rest at noontime, To see the sunbeams play; And flash his spears of icicles, Or let them melt away.

He'll toss the snowflakes in the air, Nor let them go nor stay; Then hold his breath while swift they fall, That coasting boys may play.

He'll touch the brooks and rivers wide, That skating crowds may shout; He'll make the people far and near Remember he's about.

He'll send his nimble, frosty Jack-- Without a shade of doubt-- To do all kinds of merry pranks, And call the children out;

He'll sit upon the whitened fields, And reach his icy hand O'er houses where the sudden cold Folks cannot understand.

The very moon, that ventures forth From clouds so soft and grand, Will stare to see the stiffened look That settles o'er the land.

And so the Frost King o'er the hills, And o'er the startled plain, Will come and go from year to year Till Earth grows young again-- Till Time himself shall cease to be, Till gone are hill and plain: Whenever Winter comes to stay, The h.o.a.ry King shall reign.

Mary Mapes Dodge.

KING WINTER'S HARVEST

King Winter sat upon his iceberg throne, and waving his scepter, a huge icicle, called for all the Snow Fairies and Frost Fairies to draw near, as he wished to see them.

”Tell me, Snow Fairies,” said King Winter, ”what have you been doing of late; have you made anybody happy by your work?”

”Oh, yes,” they all said at once, ”we had the jolliest time last night putting white dresses on the trees, white spreads over the gra.s.ses, white caps on all the fence posts, and making things look so strange that when the children came out in the morning they just shouted and laughed, and soon threw so much snow over each other that they were dressed in white, too, and seemed Snow Fairies like ourselves. They, too, wanted to make curious canes, castles, and other things with the snow as we had done. Sleds were brought out and when the sleighbells commenced their music it seemed that everybody was made glad by our work.”

”Well done,” said King Winter, ”now away to your work again.”

In a twinkling the Snow Fairies were up in a purple cloud-boat throwing a shower of snowflake kisses down to King Winter to thank him for giving them work to do.

”Now, Frost Fairies,” said King Winter, turning to a glittering band who wore some of his own jewels, ”what have you done to make anybody glad?”

”We have made pictures upon the windows and hung your jewels upon the trees for the people to look at, and covered the skating ponds,” said Jack Frost, the leader.

”That is good,” said King Winter. ”You and the Snow Fairies seem to be making the world glad now, but pretty soon we must leave the work, and the good sunbeams will put our things away; they will hide the s...o...b..a.l.l.s, and crack the skating ponds so that the ice may float downstream. Now I would like to make something that will keep long after we are gone away. Queen Summer is gone but her harvest of hay and grain is in the barns. Queen Autumn is gone but her harvest of apples and potatoes is in the cellars; now I want to leave a harvest, too.”

”But the sunbeams are away most of the time now,” said Jack Frost.

”Can anything grow without them?”

”My harvest will grow best without them,” said King Winter, ”and I'll just hang up a thick cloud curtain and ask them to play upon the other side while my harvest grows. Mr. North Wind will help, and if all you Frost Fairies do your liveliest work my harvest will soon be ready.”

North Wind soon came with bags of cold air which he scattered hither and thither, while the Frost Fairies carried it into every track and corner, wondering all the while what the harvest would be. But after two days' work they found out; for horses were hitched to sleds and men started for the lakes and rivers, saying, ”The ice has frozen so thick that it is a fine time to fill the ice-houses.” Saws and poles were carried along, and soon huge blocks of ice were finding places upon the sleds ready for a ride to some ice-house where they would be packed so securely in sawdust that King Winter's harvest would keep through the very hottest weather.

”Then the ice-men can play that they are we,” said a Frost Fairy, ”scattering cold all about to make people glad.”

OLD KING WINTER

Old King Winter's on his throne In robes of ermine white; The crown of jewels on his head Now glitters bright with light.