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diff --git a/old/haw3910.txt b/old/haw3910.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88a6b4f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/haw3910.txt @@ -0,0 +1,565 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook Snow Flakes, by Nathaniel Hawthorne +From "Twice Told Tales" +#39 in our series by Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: Snow Flakes (From "Twice Told Tales") + +Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne + +Release Date: Nov, 2005 [EBook #9212] +[This file was first posted on August 31, 2003] +[Last updated on February 5, 2007] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SNOW FLAKES *** + + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + + + + + + TWICE TOLD TALES + + SNOW-FLAKES + + By Nathaniel Hawthorne + + + +There is snow in yonder cold gray sky of the morning!-and, through +the partially frosted window-panes, I love to watch the gradual +beginning of the storm. A few feathery flakes are scattered widely +through the air, and hover downward with uncertain flight, now almost +alighting on the earth, now whirled again aloft into remote regions of +the atmosphere. These are not the big flakes, heavy with moisture, +which melt as they touch the ground, and are portentous of a soaking +rain. It is to be, in good earnest, a wintry storm. The two or three +people, visible on the side-walks, have an aspect of endurance, a +blue-nosed, frosty fortitude, which is evidently assumed in +anticipation of a comfortless and blustering day. By nightfall, or at +least before the sun sheds another glimmering smile upon us, the +street and our little garden will be heaped with mountain snow- +drifts. The soil, already frozen for weeks past, is prepared to +sustain whatever burden may be laid upon it; and, to a northern eye, +the landscape will lose its melancholy bleakness and acquire a beauty +of its own, when Mother Earth, like her children, shall have put on +the fleecy garb of her winter's wear. The cloud-spirits are slowly +weaving her white mantle. As yet, indeed, there is barely a rime like +hoarfrost over the brown surface of the street; the withered green of +the grass-plat is still discernible; and the slated roofs of the +houses do but begin to look gray, instead of black. All the snow that +has yet fallen within the circumference of my view, were it heaped up +together, would hardly equal the hillock of a grave. Thus gradually, +by silent and stealthy influences, are great changes wrought. These +little snow-particles, which the storm-spirit flings by handfuls +through the air, will bury the great earth under their accumulated +mass, nor permit her to behold her sister sky again for dreary months. +We, likewise, shall lose sight of our mother's familiar visage, and +must content ourselves with looking heavenward the oftener. + +Now, leaving the storm to do his appointed office, let us sit down, +pen in hand, by our fireside. Gloomy as it may seem, there is an +influence productive of cheerfulness, and favorable to imaginative +thought, in the atmosphere of a snowy day. The native of a southern +clime may woo the muse beneath the heavy shade of summer foliage, +reclining on banks of turf, while the sound of singing birds and +warbling rivulets chimes in with the music of his soul. In our brief +summer, I do not think, but only exist in the vague enjoyment of a +dream. My hour of inspiration--if that hour ever comes--is when the +green log hisses upon the hearth, and the bright flame, brighter for +the gloom of the chamber, rustles high up the chimney, and the coals +drop tinkling down among the growing heaps of ashes. When the +casement rattles in the gust, and the snow-flakes or the sleety +raindrops pelt hard against the window-panes, then I spread out my +sheet of paper, with the certainty that thoughts and fancies will +gleam forth upon it, like stars at twilight, or like violets in May,-- +perhaps to fade as soon. However transitory their glow, they at least +shine amid the darksome shadow which the clouds of the outward sky +fling through the room. Blessed, therefore, and reverently welcomed +by me, her true-born son, be New England's winter, which makes us, one +and all, the nurslings of the storm, and sings a familiar lullaby even +in the wildest shriek of the December blast. Now look we forth again, +and see how much of his task the storm-spirit has done. + +Slow and sure! He has the day, perchance the week, before him, and +may take his own time to accomplish Nature's burial in snow. A smooth +mantle is scarcely yet thrown over the withered grass-plat, and the +dry stalks of annuals still thrust themselves through the white +surface in all parts of the garden. The leafless rose-bushes stand +shivering in a shallow snow-drift, looking, poor things! as +disconsolate as if they possessed a human consciousness of the dreary +scene. This is a sad time for the shrubs that do not perish with the +summer; they neither live nor die; what they retain of life seems but +the chilling sense of death. Very sad are the flower shrubs in +midwinter! The roofs of the houses are now all white, save where the +eddying wind has kept them bare at the bleak corners. To discern the +real intensity of the storm, we must fix upon some distant object,--as +yonder spire,-and observe how the riotous gust fights with the +descending snow throughout the intervening space. Sometimes the +entire prospect is obscured; then, again, we have a distinct, but +transient glimpse of the tall steeple, like a giant's ghost; and now +the dense wreaths sweep between, as if demons were flinging snowdrifts +at each other, in mid-air. Look next into the street, where we have +seen an amusing parallel to the combat of those fancied demons in the +upper regions. It is a snow-battle of school-boys. What a pretty +satire on war and military glory might be written, in the form of a +child's story, by describing the snowball-fights of two rival schools, +the alternate defeats and victories of each, and the final triumph of +one party, or perhaps of neither! What pitched battles, worthy to be +chanted in Homeric strains! What storming of fortresses, built all of +massive snowblocks! What feats of individual prowess, and embodied +onsets of martial enthusiasm! And when some well-contested and +decisive victory had put a period to the war, both armies should unite +to build a lofty monument of snow upon the battle-field, and crown it +with the victor's statue, hewn of the same frozen marble. In a few +days or weeks thereafter, the passer-by would observe a shapeless +mound upon the level common; and, unmindful of the famous victory, +would ask, "How came it there? Who reared it? And what means it?" +The shattered pedestal of many a battle monument has provoked these +questions, when none could answer. + +Turn we again to the fireside, and sit musing there, lending our ears +to the wind, till perhaps it shall seem like an articulate voice, and +dictate wild and airy matter for the pen. Would it might inspire me +to sketch out the personification of a New England winter! And that +idea, if I can seize the snow-wreathed figures that flit before my +fancy, shall be the theme of the next page. + +How does Winter herald his approach? By the shrieking blast of latter +autumn, which is Nature's cry of lamentation, as the destroyer rushes +among the shivering groves where she has lingered, and scatters the +sear leaves upon the tempest. When that cry is heard, the people wrap +themselves in cloaks, and shake their heads disconsolately, saying, +"Winter is at hand!" Then the axe of the woodcutter echoes sharp and +diligently in the forest; then the coal-merchants rejoice, because +each shriek of Nature in her agony adds something to the price of coal +per ton; then the peat-smoke spreads its aromatic fragrance through +the atmosphere. A few days more; and at eventide, the children look +out of the window, and dimly perceive the flaunting of a snowy mantle +in the air. It is stern Winter's vesture. They crowd around the +hearth, and cling to their mother's gown, or press between their +father's knees, affrighted by the hollow roaring voice, that bellows +a-down the wide flue of the chimney. It is the voice of Winter; and +when parents and children bear it, they shudder and exclaim, "Winter +is come! Cold Winter has begun his reign already!" Now, throughout +New England, each hearth becomes an altar, sending up the smoke of a +continued sacrifice to the immitigable deity who tyrannizes over +forest, country side, and town. Wrapped in his white mantle, his +staff a huge icicle, his beard and hair a wind-tossed snow-drift, he +travels over the land, in the midst of the northern blast; and woe to +the homeless wanderer whom he finds upon his path! There he lies +stark and stiff, a human shape of ice, on the spot where Winter +overtook him. On strides the tyrant over the rushing rivers and broad +lakes, which turn to rock beneath his footsteps. His dreary empire is +established; all around stretches the desolation of the Pole. Yet not +ungrateful be his New England children,--for Winter is our sire, +though a stern and rough one,--not ungrateful even for the severities, +which have nourished our unyielding strength of character. And let us +thank him, too, for the sleigh-rides, cheered by the music of merry +bells; for the crackling and rustling hearth, when the ruddy firelight +gleams on hardy Manhood and the blooming cheek of Woman; for all the +home enjoyments, and the kindred virtues, which flourish in a frozen +soil. Not that we grieve, when, after some seven months of storm and +bitter frost, Spring, in the guise of a flower-crowned virgin, is seen +driving away the hoary despot, pelting him with violets by the +handful, and strewing green grass on the path behind him. Often, ere +he will give up his empire, old Winter rushes fiercely back, and hurls +a snow-drift at the shrinking form of Spring; yet, step by step, he is +compelled to retreat northward, and spends the summer months within +the Arctic circle. + +Such fantasies, intermixed among graver toils of mind, have made the +winter's day pass pleasantly. Meanwhile, the storm has raged without +abatement, and now, as the brief afternoon declines, is tossing denser +volumes to and fro about the atmosphere. On the window-sill, there is +a layer of snow, reaching half-way up the lowest pane of glass. The +garden is one unbroken bed. Along the street are two or three spots +of uncovered earth, where the gust has whirled away the snow, heaping +it elsewhere to the fence-tops, or piling huge banks against the doors +of houses. A solitary passenger is seen, now striding mid-leg deep +across a drift, now scudding over the bare ground, while his cloak is +swollen with the wind. And now the jingling of bells, a sluggish +sound, responsive to the horse's toilsome progress through the +unbroken drifts, announces the passage of a sleigh, with a boy +clinging behind, and ducking his head to escape detection by the +driver. Next comes a sledge, laden with wood for some unthrifty +housekeeper, whom winter has surprised at a cold hearth. But what +dismal equipage now struggles along the uneven street? A sable +hearse, bestrewn with snow, is bearing a dead man through the storm to +his frozen bed. O, how dreary is a burial in winter, when the bosom +of Mother Earth has no warmth for her poor child! + +Evening--the early eve of December--begins to spread its deepening +veil over the comfortless scene; the firelight gradually brightens, +and throws my flickering shadow upon the walls and ceiling of the +chamber; but still the storm rages and rattles, against the windows. +Alas! I shiver, and think it time to be disconsolate. But, taking a +farewell glance at dead Nature in her shroud, I perceive a flock of +snow-birds, skimming lightsomely through the tempest, and flitting +from drift to drift, as sportively as swallows in the delightful prime +of summer. Whence come they? Where do they build their nests, and +seek their food? Why, having airy wings, do they not follow summer +around the earth, instead of making themselves the playmates of the +storm, and fluttering on the dreary verge of the winter's eve? I know +not whence they come, nor why; yet my spirit has been cheered by that +wandering flock of snow-birds. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, SNOW FLAKES *** +By Nathaniel Hawthorne + +This file should be named haw3910.txt or haw3910.zip ** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, haw3911.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, haw3910a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net] + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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