The Garnet Story Book: Tales of Cheer Both Old and New

by Unknown

“Me come and see him when him finished,” said George. “Good day, Massa Down,” and as he said this the laughing black face of George Poole disappeared from the top of the hedge.

This work of rolling continued all the morning, and, as they found they had nothing else to do, they worked at it all the afternoon, also. By this time they had made seven balls of snow, each as large as the head of an elephant, and had rolled them all into the very middle of the field. But to do this they had been obliged to ask for the help of two men from our house. This my father readily gave; indeed, I believe he himself helped at the last rolling of each ball, as they were so very heavy and moved so slowly. Mr. Downes then took the spade and patted every ball with the flat part of it, in order to make them even and hard, and so left them for the night.

The next morning while we were at breakfast Gaffer Downes passed by the window, with a spade over his shoulder, followed by the sexton and coachman each with a spade over his shoulder, and after them came the beadle, the church bell ringer, and the young man who blew the bellows for the organ.

They all followed Mr. Downes into the large field.

Up we all jumped from the breakfast table and hurried on our things; papa, mamma and I, and Ellen Turner, who had heard of something that was to be done in our field, and had come over to breakfast with us to see. Away we all went, mamma carrying me where the snow was too deep, and papa carrying Ellen.

When we came into the large field, there we saw them all busy indeed, working under the directions of Gaffer Downes, who was not working himself now, but standing still in the attitude of an artist, giving orders to his pupils. They soon made a sort of flat bank of snow, about a foot and a half high, and patted it down very hard with their spades. The pupils, that is to say, the coachman and sexton and bell ringer and beadle, and the young man who blew the bellows for the organ, then rolled three of the great balls of snow up on this bank, close to one another, so as to form a sort of circle, but leaving a hollow place in the middle of the form of a triangle, which the beadle remarked was very much the figure of the coachman’s Sunday hat. Mr. Downes now came with his spade, and made this three-cornered hollow larger, in fact, large enough for a man to stand in very easily. He then desired the coachman and sexton to assist him with their spades in making the tops of these three balls quite flat. When this was done he directed them to make three more of the balls flat at top and bottom; this also being done, he called all his party together and told them to lift these three balls, one at a time, and carefully place them upon the top of those three that were already placed, as I have told you. So the pupils did as they were directed and Mr. Downes made three notches, like steps, in the side of two of the balls, and up them he slowly walked with his spade, and again made the three-cornered hole in the middle of the three top snow balls, as large as he had made it in those at the bottom. We all thought he was going to get into it, but he did not. He only looked in. He now came down with a very important look, and went up to the one large ball of snow, which still lay there in its round shape. This he trimmed and patted all about into the form he wished, and then all the pupils were called to carry it and lift it by degrees and to place at the very top where it was intended to be made the head of the Man of Snow. It was a great job to get the head safely up, for it was very heavy. However, after much time and many narrow escapes of the head, and all the pupils tumbling down together, they did manage to get it to the top, just over the hole which it covered up and its own weight kept it there safely.

It was now time to go to dinner. We all went but we finished as soon as we could and returned to the large field. Gaffer Downes, the coachman, and sexton moved round and round with their spades, cutting and shoving or patting up the snow to make the figure of a man. And as there were several hollow places where you could look into the inside, they filled them up with hard lumps of snow; all except one hole, which Mr. Downes said he wished left open to let the air in, though, on second thought, he said he would cover it over himself, and so he did, but very lightly. They made a few trenches and ridges down the middle and at the sides of the Man, and this they called his legs and arms, at which we all laughed. Lastly, Mr. Downes went climbing up the sides with his spade and went to work at the head. What he tried to do was to make a face to it, but it was very difficult. He cut out the nose and chin, very large and broad; but some unlucky cut just as he was finishing made them fall off. He then asked the beadle to bring him two short sticks from the hedge; this being done, he stuck them into the face and covered them over with handfuls of snow, which he pressed and patted into the shape of a nose and chin. But when he had finished the weight of the snow made the sticks come out and down they fell. He went on trying again and again, and we all looked on and hoped he would succeed, though we laughed very much also for the nose fell off six times and the chin four. At last, however, with a sudden thought, which could only have occurred to one who had quite a genius for making a Man of Snow, Mr. Downes stuck the two short sticks in not pointing downwards or straight out, but pointing rather upwards, so that the weight of the nose and chin were supported upon the face and they held fast. And a very strange face it was!

Two things were still to be done. Mr. Downes drew from his coat pocket a couple of large round stones of a blue-grey color, and these he fixed in the face for eyes; and over the head, at each side, he stuck a number of small hedge twigs and a wreath from a thorny wild rose-tree, for hair. If more snow should fall he assured us the hair would look quite beautiful. Down came Mr. Gaffer Downes, looking so seriously and modestly upon the snow clumps on his shoes, while we all praised his work and told him how much we liked his Man of Snow.

It was now evening. We all went back through the fields and when we arrived at the house my papa sent out a quantity of hot ale, with sugar and toast in it, for the pupils, and we made Mr. Downes come in to tea with us though he wanted to go home. He said his little granddaughter and the blackbird would think he was lost in the snow.

There did happen to be a slight fall of snow again in the night and we all went down to the large field next morning after breakfast to see what change it had made in the appearance of the great Man. And a fine change, indeed, it had made. He looked much larger and rounder and whiter and colder and seemed more “at home” in the great white field. And he had a wonderful head of hair!