it was more than a
transformation-scene is to the petted child of a jaded civilization.
He watched the flakes as they came down in their wild race from
the sky, and saw them disappear on touching the stream that ran
through the heart of the Clough. He gathered masses of the flaky
substance in his hand, and, squeezing them into balls, threw them
at distant objects, and then filled his mouth with the icy
particles, and revelled in the shock and chill of the melting
substance between his teeth as no connoisseur of wine ever
revelled in the juices of the choice vintages of Spain and France.
Then he would shake and clap his hands because of what he called
the 'hot ache' that seized them, only to scamper off again after
some new object around which to weave another dream of wonder.

The dusk gave place to gloom, and still faster fell the snow,
white and feathery, silent and sublime. The child felt the charm,
and began to lose himself in the impalpable something that, like a
curtain of spirit, gathered around. He, too, was now as white as
the shrubs through which he wended his way, and every now and then
he doffed his cap, and, with a wild laugh of delight, flung its
covering of snow upon the ground. Then, out of sheer fulness of
life and rapport with the scene, he would rush for a yard or two
up the steep sides of the Clough and roll downwards in the soft
substance which lay deeply around.

The gloom thickened and nightfall came, but the snow lighted up
the dark gorge, and threw out the branching trees, the tall trunks
of which rose columnar-like as the pillars of some cathedral nave.
Did the boy think of home--of fire--of bed? Not he! He thought
only of Jenny Greenteeth, the sprite of the Clough, and of the Gin
Spa Well, above which she was said to sleep; and on he roamed.

And now the path became narrower and more tortuous, while on the
steep sides the snow was gathering in ominous drifts. Undaunted he
struggled on, knee-deep, often stumbling, yet always rising to
dive afresh into the yielding element that lay between himself and
the enchanted ground beyond. In a little time he came to a great
bulging bend, around the foot of which the waters flowed in sullen
sweeps. Here, careful as he was, he slipped, and lay for a moment
stunned and chilled with his sudden immersion. Struggling to the
bank, he regained his foothold, and, rounding the promontory of
cliff which had almost defeated his search, he turned the angle
that