For all will around be so pleasant and warm,—
Your hearth bright and cheering—your coal in a glow;
You'll not heed the winds whistling up the rough storm
To sift o'er your dwellings its clouds full of snow!
You'll then think of me;—how I handled to-day
The cold stone and iron—the brick and the lime:
And all, but the surer foundation to lay
For comfort to give in the drear winter time.
I lay you, against this old Winter, a charm.
To make him, at least, keep himself out of doors!