e rope.

Meantime, the day was drawing towards its close. Out of doors the
scene certainly looked dreary. There was a gray drift, far and wide,
through the gathering twilight; the earth was as pathless as the air;
and the bank of snow over the steps of the porch proved that nobody
had entered or gone out for a good many hours past. Had there been
only one child at the window of Tanglewood, gazing at this wintry
prospect, it would perhaps have made him sad. But half a dozen
children together, though they cannot quite turn the world into a
paradise, may defy old Winter and all his storms to put them out of
spirits. Eustace Bright, moreover, on the spur of the moment, invented
several new kinds of play, which kept them all in a roar of merriment
till bedtime, and served for the next stormy day besides.

THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES

[Illustration]

TANGLEWOOD FIRESIDE

INTRODUCTORY TO THE 3 GOLDEN APPLES

The snow-storm lasted another day; but what became of it afterwards, I
cannot possibly imagine. At any rate, it entirely cleared away during
the night; and when the sun arose the next morning, it shone brightly
down on as bleak a tract of hill-country here in Berkshire, as could
be seen anywhere in the world. The frost-work had so covered the
window-panes that it was hardly possible to get a glimpse at the
scenery outside. But, while waiting for breakfast, the small populace
of Tanglewood had scratched peep-holes with their finger-nails, and
saw with vast delight that--unless it were one or two bare patches on
a precipitous hill-side, or the gray effect of the snow, intermingled
with the black pine forest--all nature was as white as a sheet. How
exceedingly pleasant! And, to make it all the better, it was cold
enough to nip one's nose short off! If people have but life enough in
them to bear it, there is nothing that so raises the spirits, and
makes the blood ripple and dance so nimbly, like a brook down the
slope of a hill, as a bright, hard frost.

No sooner was breakfast over, than the whole party, well muffled in
furs and woolens, floundered forth into the midst of the snow. Well,
what a day of frosty sport was this! They slid down hill into the
valley, a hundred times, nobody knows how far; and, to make it all the
merrier, upsetting their sledges, and tumbling head over heels, quite
as often as they came safely to the bottom. And, once, Eustace Bright
took Periwinkle, Sweet Fern, and Squash-Blossom, on th