The Little People of the Snow

FROM DESIGNS BY ALFRED FREDERICKS, ENGRAVED BY A. BOBBETT. NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 1873.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, By D. APPLETON & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.


Alice. — Nay, now, nay; Those stories are too childish, Uncle John, Too childish even for little Willy here, And I am older, two good years, than he; No, let us have a tale of elves that ride, By night, with jingling reins, or gnomes of the mine, Or water-fairies, such as you know how
To spin, till Willy's eyes forget to wink, And good Aunt Mary, busy as she is, Lays down her knitting.
Uncle John. — Listen to me, then. 'Twas in the olden time, long, long ago, And long before the great oak at our door Was yet an acorn, on a mountain's side


Alice. —A mountain's side, you said; the Alps, perhaps, Or our own Alleghanies. Uncle John. — Not so fast, My young geographer, for then the Alps, With their broad pastures, haply were untrod Of herdsman's foot, and never human voice Had sounded in the woods that overhang Our Alleghany's streams. I think it was Upon the slopes of the great Caucasus, Or where the rivulets of Ararat Seek the Armenian vales. That mountain rose So high, that, on its top, the winter snow Was never melted, and the cottagers Among the summer blossoms, far below, Saw its white peaks in August from their door. One little maiden, in that cottage home, Dwelt with her parents, light of heart and limb, Bright, restless, thoughtless, flitting here and there,