The Wonderful Fairies of the Sun/The Frost Fairy
“And they are such wonderful pictures, too,—
So skilfully carved and drawn!”
THE FROST FAIRY.
OF all of the Fairies the children know
And read about, day by day,
The Frost is the chap that they love to watch,
With his pictures so bright and gay.
They know if the weather is clear and cold
When they jump into bed at night:
In the morning the windows will sparkle and gleam
With his pictures of glistening white.
And they are such wonderful pictures, too,—
So skilfully carved and drawn!
How charming they look when they’re all lit up
By the gray of the Wintry Dawn!
He never exhibits the same ones twice,
But thousands of weird designs
Are shown in his pictures of flowers and trees,
With their feathery sprays and lines.
“Taking pictures of waving grains,
That give him ideas for his shows next year.”
You probably think, like lots of folks,
That this Fairy, so clever and queer,
Is only at work in the winter time,
And sleeps the rest of the year.
Ah, no! He is busy the whole year round,
Taking pictures of waving grains,
That give him ideas for his shows next year,
On your chamber window-panes.
He does other wonders as well as paint,—
For have you not seen the ground
Sparkle and shine in the morning light
Like diamonds scattered round?
This same little Fairy attends to that,
And oh! he has lots of fun
With his hundreds of sprites who help him work,
And this is the way it is done:—
The stars, as you know, don’t shine all day,
But where do you think they’re kept?
Well, they’re taken to places beyond the sky,
And there they are dusted and swept.
Of course in the sweeping a dust is raised,
And this dust, which of course shines bright,
Is scattered around o’er the frozen ground
By the Frost, in the dead of night.
“They are taken to places beyond the sky,
And there they are dusted and swept.”
If you treat this wonderful Fairy well,
He will do just the same by you;
But if you offend him, you never can tell
Just what he is apt to do.
He is liable either to pinch your ears,
Or nip all your fingers and toes;
And sometimes, if he gets really mad,
He will actually bite your nose.
