As the Man of Snow said this, we all saw his head shake a little, as if he was in a great fuss with what he was thinking about doing; and we even thought we saw the upper part of the figure shake a little, and some pieces of snow began to crumble and fall. But he went on speaking again.
Man of Snow: “And me mean to have elephants and rhinoceroses and apes with long arms and blue noses. And me mean to build a house for elephants very large and very strong; so that when we catch wild elephant, he no can get out. He try, and try—but he can’t.”
Here we all saw the Man of Snow shake again.
Man of Snow: “Makey house all sides very strong bamboo. See him angry-trunk poke through the bars of cage—but all too fast and strong. He no can get out. Then he make trumpet noise with trunk, and him lilly cunning eye look so very angry; and then he run him head right against the front of cage to try and push him down! but it is all too strong, and he can’t—yet he push! and push!—and trumpet with trunk—and push! and, oh, Massa Down!”
As the Man of Snow uttered these words off rolled his head and broke into twenty pieces!—and the next instant the whole figure cracked, and opened in the middle and fell to pieces—and out rolled George Poole upon the snow, crying out: “Oh, Massa Down, why you no build him stronger?”
You may suppose how we all laughed. One of the young ladies almost went into a fit of laughing and most of us laughed till we had a pain at both sides of the face, and yet we were unable to stop.
Even Mr. Downes laughed; not at first, though; at first he made a very long face, then he began, “te! he! he!”—and “he! he! he!” till at last he went into “ha! ha! ha! Oh, dear me!”—and was obliged to sit down upon the snow and wipe his forehead to recover himself.
We all returned to the house very merrily laughing all the way. We brought the King of Lapland with us, for George had always been a favourite in the village. So we told the cook to give his Majesty a large basin of rice, milk, and sugar, and mamma sent him afterwards a large slice of plum cake, and a tumbler with some sugar and lemons. Papa requested Mr. Downes to come in to supper with us, but he said that he really must go home, as his granddaughter and the blackbird would think something had happened to him. Papa, however, would take no denial, so we made Mr. Downes come in, and then we sent a man for his granddaughter with a message that she was to bring the blackbird with her.
So, in a few minutes afterwards, in came a pretty little girl of ten years of age, with blue eyes and flaxen hair, and a complexion like a rose, bringing in her hand a large milk-white wicker cage with the blackbird sitting in the middle. He was as black as coal with a yellow bill, and oh! such a bright, black eye. He sat on his perch with his head bent on one side a little, then he jumped down to the bottom of the cage, and, poking his head between the bars, gave a look all round. He then hopped back into the middle of the cage, bowed very low and very quickly several times, and then hopped upon his perch with his tail toward us, but instantly whisked round, as if he was afraid somebody was going to touch his tail. Then he began to sing. He sang nearly all supper time, and flapped his black wings while we all stood up and drank the health of Mr. Gaffer Downes, the artist who had made the Man of Snow.