The Pink Fairy Book, part 5 · page 21 2 3101The lady-birches waved in the wind; and when the sun shone, everything glittered and sparkled as if it were sprinkled with diamond dust, and great diamonds were lying on the snowy carpet.102‘Isn’t it wonderful?’ exclaimed a girl who was walking with a young man in the garden.103They stopped near the Snow-man, and looked at the glistening trees.104‘Summer cannot show a more beautiful sight,’ she said, with her eyes shining.105‘And one can’t get a fellow like this in summer either,’ said the young man, pointing to the Snow-man.106‘He’s a beauty!’107The girl laughed, and nodded to the Snow-man, and then they both danced away over the snow.108‘Who were those two?’ asked the Snow-man of the yard-dog.109‘You have been in this yard longer than I have.110Do you know who they are?’111‘Do I know them indeed?’ answered the yard-dog.112‘She has often stroked me, and he has given me bones.113I don’t bite either of them!’114‘But what are they?’ asked the Snow-man.115‘Lovers!’ replied the yard-dog.116‘They will go into one kennel and gnaw the same bone!’117‘Are they the same kind of beings that we are?’ asked the Snow-man.118‘They are our masters,’ answered the yard-dog.119‘Really people who have only been in the world one day know very little.’120That’s the conclusion I have come to.121Now I have age and wisdom; I know everyone in the house, and I can remember a time when I was not lying here in a cold kennel.122Bow-wow!’123‘The cold is splendid,’ said the Snow-man.124‘Tell me some more.125But don’t rattle your chain so, it makes me crack!’126‘Bow-wow!’ barked the yard-dog.127‘They used to say I was a pretty little fellow; then I lay in a velvet-covered chair in my master’s house.128My mistress used to nurse me, and kiss and fondle me, and call me her dear, sweet little Alice!129But by-and-by I grew too big, and I was given to the housekeeper, and I went into the kitchen.130You can see into it from where you are standing; you can look at the room in which I was master, for so I was when I was with the housekeeper.131Of course it was a smaller place than upstairs, but it was more comfortable, for I wasn’t chased about and teased by the children as I had been before.132My food was just as good, or even better.133I had my own pillow, and there was a stove there, which at this time of year is the most beautiful thing in the world.134I used to creep right under that stove.135Ah me!136I often dream of that stove still!137Bow-wow!’138‘Is a stove so beautiful?’ asked the Snow-man.139‘Is it anything like me?’140‘It is just the opposite of you!141It is coal-black, and has a long neck with a brass pipe.142It eats firewood, so that fire spouts out of its mouth.143One has to keep close beside it-quite underneath is the nicest of all.144You can see it through the window from where you are standing.’145And the Snow-man looked in that direction, and saw a smooth polished object with a brass pipe.146The flicker from the fire reached him across the snow.147The Snow-man felt wonderfully happy, and a feeling came over him which he could not express; but all those who are not snow-men know about it.148‘Why did you leave her?’ asked the Snow-man.149He had a feeling that such a being must be a lady.150‘How could you leave such a place?’151‘I had to!’ said the yard-dog.152‘They turned me out of doors, and chained me up here.153I had bitten the youngest boy in the leg, because he took away the bone I was gnawing; a bone for a bone, I thought!154But they were very angry, and from that time I have been chained here, and I have lost my voice.155Don’t you hear how hoarse I am?156Bow-wow!157I can’t speak like other dogs.158Bow-wow!159That was the end of happiness!’160The Snow-man, however, was not listening to him any more; he was looking into the room where the housekeeper lived, where the stove stood on its four iron legs, and seemed to be just the same size as the Snow-man.161‘How something is cracking inside me!’ he said.162‘Shall I never be able to get in there?163It is certainly a very innocent wish, and our innocent wishes ought to be fulfilled.164I must get there, and lean against the stove, if I have to break the window first!’165‘You will never get inside there!’ said the yard-dog; ‘and if you were to reach the stove you would disappear.166Bow-wow!’167‘I’m as good as gone already!’ answered the Snow-man.168‘I believe I’m breaking up!’169The whole day the Snow-man looked through the window; towards dusk the room grew still more inviting; the stove gave out a mild light, not at all like the moon or even the sun; no, as only a stove can shine, when it has something to feed upon.170When the door of the room was open, it flared up-this was one of its peculiarities; it flickered quite red upon the Snow-man’s white face.171‘I can’t stand it any longer!’ he said.172‘How beautiful it looks with its tongue stretched out like that!’173It was a long night, but the Snow-man did not find it so; there he stood, wrapt in his pleasant thoughts, and they froze, so that he cracked.174Next morning the panes of the kitchen window were covered with ice, and the most beautiful ice-flowers that even a snow-man could desire, only they blotted out the stove.175The window would not open; he couldn’t see the stove which he thought was such a lovely lady.176There was a cracking and cracking inside him and all around; there was just such a frost as a snow-man would delight in.177But this Snow-man was different: how could he feel happy?178‘Yours is a bad illness for a Snow-man!’ said the yard-dog.179‘I also suffered from it, but I have got over it.180Bow-wow!’ he barked.181‘The weather is going to change!’ he added.182The weather did change.183There came a thaw.184When this set in the Snow-man set off.185He did not say anything, and he did not complain, and those are bad signs.186One morning he broke up altogether.187And lo! where he had stood there remained a broomstick standing upright, round which the boys had built him!188‘Ah! now I understand why he loved the stove,’ said the yard-dog.189‘That is the raker they use to clean out the stove!190The Snow-man had a stove-raker in his body!191That’s what was the matter with him!192And now it’s all over with him!193Bow-wow!’194And before long it was all over with the winter too!195‘Bow-wow!’ barked the hoarse yard-dog.196But the young girl sang:197Woods, your bright green garments don!198Willows, your woolly gloves put on!199Lark and cuckoo, daily sing-- February has brought the spring!200My heart joins in your song so sweet; Come out, dear sun, the world to greet!1 2 3← previousThe Pink Fairy Book, part 4next →The Pink Fairy Book, part 6↑ back to The Pink Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/5/page/2/