A SNOW SONG.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXV, Issue 4254, 3 July 1895, Page 6

A SNOW SONG.

Beautiful, feathery, wintery snow ! Glad'ning the hearts of the children below ; Chasing the wind in your frolicsome glee, Till your shadow hus lined every autumn-shorn tree; And the eager child faces with happiness glow As they sec through the window the white falling snow. Gleefully, playfully, Nellie and Flo Gather the Hakes— making men out of snow. The sculptor who forms the proud goddess of stone Knows naught of the pride which is theirs, quite alone. But their white hero melts when thawing winds blow, And the pretty ones sigh for the vanishing snow. Just a peep at those rowdy young urchins bestow As they start on its errand the missile of snow. See, it rolls and gets large, and faster it rolls Down the hill, to the joy of their innocent souls ; Till at last it has learned its own level to know, And ends its great race amid beautiful snow. See the maid, who on errand or pleasure will go, With the wind gaily bending her dress to and fro. How she casts timid glances for youths who would fain Enshroud her in snow ; but her haste is in vain, For her footstep's the signal to foes lying low, And, with yells of delight, she is pelted with snow. Then the story at night of " how long years ago, When the pitiless ground was becovered in snow," Will grandfather tell, and the weird evening light Will accompany well the sad talc of the fight Where the trenches were peopled to quell England s foe, And heroes died hard in the cold-hearted .snow. Then silence will fall on the sad talc of woe, And the wind sigh the song of the mute falling .snow ; And mother will hap the young heart in its cot, Then to dreamland's bright heavun will fly the wee dot— And the castles of fairies, where bright roses grow, In the pure sleeper's dream will bo dazzling in snow. E. Wilson.