calling:
Each flake seems a fairy parachute,
From mystic cloudland blown,
And earth is still, and air is mute,
As frost's enchanted zone.

II.

The shrubs bend down--behold the trees
Their fingery boughs stretch out
The blossoms of the sky to seize,
As they duck and drive about;
The bare hills plead for a covering,
And ere the grey twilight
Around their shoulders broad shall cling
An arctic cloak of white.

III.

With clapping hands, from drifted door
Of lonely shieling, peeps
The imp, to see thy mantle hoar
O'erspread the craggy steeps.
The eagle round its eyrie screams;
The hill-fox seeks the glade;
And foaming downwards rush the streams,
As mad to be delay'd.

IV.

Falling white on the land it lies,
And falling dark in the sea;
The solan to its island flies,
The crow to the thick larch-tree;
Within the penthouse struts the cock,
His draggled mates among;
While black-eyed robin seems to mock
The sadness with his song.

V.

Released from school, 'twas ours to wage,
How keenly! bloodless war--
Tossing the balls in mimic rage,
That left a gorgeous scar;
While doublets dark were powder'd o'er,
Till darkness none could find;
And valorous chiefs had wounds before,
And caitiff churls behind.

VI.

Comrades, to work!--I see him yet,
That piled-up giant grim,
To startle horse and horseman set,
With Titan girth of limb.
Snell Sir John Frost, with crystal spear,
We hoped thou wouldst have screen'd him;
But Thaw, the traitor, lurking near,
Soon cruelly guillotined him!

VII.

The powdery snow! Alas! to me
It speaks of far-off days,
When a boyish skater mingling free
Amid the merry maze.
Methinks I see the broad ice still;
And my nerves all jangling feel,
Blent with the tones of voices shrill,
The ring of the slider's heel.

VIII.

A scene of revelry! Soon night
Drew his murky curtains round
The world, while a star of lustre bright
Peep'd from the blue profound.
Yet what cared we for darkening lea,
Or warning bell remote?
With rush and cry we scudded by,
And seized the bliss we sought.

IX.

Drift on, ye wild winds! leave no traces
Of dim and danky earth:
While eager faces fill their places
Around the blazing hearth.
Then let the stories of the glories