before it was the sun. It will come again to-morrow, and most likely teach
you to run down into the ditch by the well; for I think the weather is going
to change. I can feel such pricks and stabs in my left leg; I am sure there is
going to be a change.”
“I don’t understand him,” said the Snow Man to himself; “but I have a
feeling that he is talking of something very disagreeable. The one who
stared so just now, and whom he calls the sun, is not my friend; I can feel
that too.”
“Away, away,” barked the yard-dog, and then he turned round three
times, and crept into his kennel to sleep.
There was really a change in the weather. Towards morning, a thick fog
covered the whole country round, and a keen wind arose, so that the cold
seemed to freeze one’s bones; but when the sun rose, the sight was splendid.
Trees and bushes were covered with hoar frost, and looked like a forest of
white coral; while on every twig glittered frozen dew-drops. The many
delicate forms concealed in summer by luxuriant foliage, were now clearly
defined, and looked like glittering lace-work. From every twig glistened a
white radiance. The birch, waving in the wind, looked full of life, like trees
in summer; and its appearance was wondrously beautiful. And where the
sun shone, how everything glittered and sparkled, as if diamond dust had
been strewn about; while the snowy carpet of the earth appeared as if
covered with diamonds, from which countless lights gleamed, whiter than
even the snow itself.
“This is really beautiful,” said a young girl, who had come into the
garden with a young man; and they both stood still near the Snow Man, and
contemplated the glittering scene. “Summer cannot show a more beautiful
sight,” she exclaimed, while her eyes sparkled.
“And we can’t have such a fellow as this in the summer time,” replied the
young man, pointing to the Snow Man; “he is capital.”
The girl laughed, and nodded at the Snow Man, and then tripped away
over the snow with her friend. The snow creaked and crackled beneath her
