less little lights were
gleaming, whiter than even the snow itself.

"That is wonderfully beautiful," said a young girl, who came with a
young man into the garden. They both stood still near the Snow Man,
and contemplated the glittering trees. "Summer cannot show a more
beautiful sight," said she; and her eyes sparkled.

"And we can't have such a fellow as this in summer-time," replied the
young man, and he pointed to the Snow Man. "He is capital."

The girl laughed, nodded at the Snow Man, and then danced away over
the snow with her friend--over the snow that cracked and crackled
under her tread as if she were walking on starch.

"Who were those two?" the Snow Man inquired of the Yard Dog. "You've
been longer in the yard than I. Do you know them?"

"Of course I know them," replied the Yard Dog. "She has stroked me,
and he has thrown me a meat bone. I don't bite those two."

"But what are they?" asked the Snow Man.

"Lovers!" replied the Yard Dog. "They will go to live in the same
kennel, and gnaw at the same bone. Away! away!"

[Illustration: THE SNOW MAN AND THE YARD DOG.]

"Are they the same kind of beings as you and I?" asked the Snow Man.

"Why, they belong to the master," retorted the Yard Dog. "People
certainly know very little who were only born yesterday. I can see
that in you. I have age, and information. I know every one here in the
house, and I know a time when I did not lie out here in the cold,
fastened to a chain. Away! away!"

"The cold is charming," said the Snow Man. "Tell me, tell me.--But you
must not clank with your chain, for it jars within me when you do
that."

"Away! away!" barked the Yard Dog. "They told me I was a pretty
little fellow: then I used to lie in a chair covered with velvet, up
in master's house, and sit in the lap of the mistress of all. They
used to kiss my nose, and wipe my paws with an embroidered
handkerchief. I was called 'Ami--dear Ami--sweet Ami.' But afterwards
I grew too big for them, and they gave me away to the housekeeper. So
I came to live in the basement storey. You can look into that from
where you are standing, and you can see into the room where I was
master; for I was master at the housekeeper's. It was certainly a
smaller place than upstairs, but I was more comfortable, and was not
continually taken hold of and pulled about by children as I had been.
I received just as good food as ever, and even better. I had my own
cushion, and there was a stove,