“Go away, back to whence you came! We do not know you and we have nothing to say to you. Summer and I are the princes of the earth; and we already are one prince too many. If more come, it will simply mean endless trouble.”
“We have not come to cause trouble, but to make peace,” said Autumn, gently.
“Between Winter and me no peace is possible,” said Summer.
“That is why we want to part you,” said Spring. “We two who have come to-day well know that we are not so powerful as you. We bow respectfully before you, because your might is greater, your sway more firmly established. We do not presume to encroach on your dominions. But we want to come between you and hinder you from laying waste the earth.”
“Yes, if you could do that!” said Summer.
“Yes, then there would be some sense in it,” growled Winter.
“We can,” said Autumn. “We understand you both, because we have something of both of you in us. When you approach each other, one of us two will step in between; and the land where we are shall then be ours.”
“I will never let go my ice-castle in the North!” cried Winter.
“I will suffer no foreign prince in my sun-palace in the South!” cried Summer.
“No more you shall,” said Autumn. “None shall disturb you in the places where you reign in your might. But now listen to me. When you two move over the earth, Spring and I will always come between you and soften the tracks of the one who is going and clear the way for the one who is coming. In this wise, we will reign for a while, each in his own time and each for a fourth part of the year. We will follow after one another in a circle which shall never be broken nor changed. And thus the poor earth will gain peace and order in her affairs.”