THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN
a printed page. But the children liked the snowstorm better than them all. It suggested so many brisk enjoyments for to-morrow, and all the remainder of the winter. The sleigh-ride; the slides down hill into the valley; the snow-images that were to be shaped out; the snow-fortresses that were to be built; and the snowballing to be carried on!
So the little folks blessed the snowstorm, and were glad to see it come thicker and thicker, and watched hopefully the long drift that was piling itself up in the avenue, and was already higher than any of their heads.
‘Why, we shall be blocked up till spring!’ cried they, with the hugest delight. ‘What a pity that the house is too high to be quite covered up! The little red house, down yonder, will be buried up to its eaves.’
‘You silly children, what do you want of more snow?’ asked Eustace, who, tired of some novel that he was skimming through, had strolled into the play-room. ‘It has done mischief enough already by spoiling the only skating that I could hope for through the winter. We shall see nothing more of the lake till April; and this was to have been my first day upon it! Don’t you pity me, Primrose?’
‘Oh, to be sure!’ answered Primrose, laughing. ‘But, for your comfort, we will listen to another of your old stories, such as you told us under the porch, and down in the hollow, by Shadow Brook. Perhaps I shall like them better now, when there is nothing to do, than while there were nuts to be gathered, and beautiful weather to enjoy.’
Hereupon, Periwinkle, Clover, Sweet Fern, and as
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