e was the sun. It will come again to-morrow and most likely
teach you to run down into the ditch by the well, for I think the
weather is going to change. I can feel such pricks and stabs in my left
leg that I am sure there is going to be a change."

"I don't understand him," said the Snow Man to himself, "but I have a
feeling that he is talking of something very disagreeable. The thing
that stared so hard just now, which he calls the sun, is not my friend;
I can feel that too."

"Away, away!" barked the yard dog, and then he turned round three times
and crept into his kennel to sleep.

There really was a change in the weather. Toward morning a thick fog
covered the whole country and a keen wind arose, so that the cold seemed
to freeze one's bones. But when the sun rose, a splendid sight was to be
seen. Trees and bushes were covered with hoarfrost and looked like a
forest of white coral, while on every twig glittered frozen dewdrops.
The many delicate forms, concealed in summer by luxuriant foliage, were
now clearly defined and looked like glittering lacework. A white
radiance glistened from every twig. The birches, waving in the wind,
looked as full of life as in summer and as wondrously beautiful. Where
the sun shone, everything glittered and sparkled as if diamond dust had
been strewn about; and the snowy carpet of the earth seemed covered with
diamonds from which gleamed countless lights, whiter even than the snow
itself.

"This is really beautiful," said a girl who had come into the garden
with a young friend; and they both stood still near the Snow Man,
contemplating the glittering scene. "Summer cannot show a more beautiful
sight," she exclaimed, while her eyes sparkled.

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

The girl laughed and nodded at the Snow Man, then tripped away over the
snow with her friend. The snow creaked and crackled beneath her feet, as
if she had been treading on starch.

"Who are those two?" asked the Snow Man of the yard dog. "You have been
here longer than I; do you know them?"

"Of course I know them," replied the yard dog; "the girl has stroked my
back many times, and the young man has often given me a bone of meat. I
never bite those two."

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

"They are lovers," he replied. "They will go and live in the same
kennel, by and by, and gnaw at the same bone.