The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1861-02-27
Sflistellaneous,
From the Louisville
II SHOWED.

| IN NE of the most beautiful sights
| ~ OF our eyes al peace with Provi-
dence and The " Gather to awaken to, is
a world buried deep in snow. Not bur
led, but warmly laid asleep by Natures
loving hands carefully under the pure
covcrlid she has wG3vyen all q still Deem
Der night from her mystic loom up
against the stars. After some soft, deli
cious, ilower-creating night in April you
waken, and the peach boughs seem to
have been touched with magic-how
beautiful but not any less strangely sug-
/ gestve of enchantment nor less marvel
| ousIy beautiful the snowfall, which loads
the trees as with "a myriad blossoms look
ing with brightawakened eyes at their
first sunrise. Aladdn's Genius built
palaces of wonder over night of which
! it is not recorded that they received final
and fatal sun strokes at morning light
at least your curly headed year old
poet laureate Of tho family. and per-
chance, of future healt-queen Victorias
won't think so, (may-be he'll be a his
toriaal did not Aladdin and his princess
| lire il thoir palace! But look at the
snow-whim's understanding the very
sunrise.
All, well--you were thinking Of ice
houses, were you?
You open your eyes, breathing the
chill inspiration Of winter air, and YOU
whole body in the delicious summer of
North Temperate Zone blankets, and
feel an unusual light in the room--a
kiud of shadow of the white silence eve
rywhere 'rithout: and lifting your head
gently, at once the scene steals upon you
/ through the slightly frosted window: it
has been showing. Then You rcmom-
Der that there w IS q quiet rustling per-
ceiyed- the alghting &C numherIes wings
Of snow fairies almost insulilie about
your windows, far into the night; all the
Midnight was hashol 10 the coming Of
this mysterious Presence; and now all the
world, Ike IN enchanted earth. seems
hushed IS by spell,
Then you hear your ehiIlrcn-you
delightful old PaterfamiIias! = whose
buoyant young souls awake (we'd be
afraid Is say with Memnon,music) to
/ the earliest touches of the morning rays
throu. h their windows, merrily breaking
the silence below: ''Snow Snoww Like
n now strange W world it comes to them,
| the first snow Of the winter, whose ap-
proach was proclaimed by the white com
mos of the frost III October and the
long November rains Like q strange
pew world it comes to them, and they
are the look outs who cry Snow F! Snow"
instead of Land. Landr Into this
half fairy land, this unsubstantial world
reality, they loap-they rush-and take
possession: not sternly and solemniy in
the name of ferdinand ana Isabella or
or any other unsubstantia and temporal
powers of earth, but merriIy, in the
name Of Joy and Love and Hope and
BEAUTY, the magic and eternal severe
igns of the wide realm of childhood, I'M
der whose Invisible ensigns the new
worlds are trken possession Of, and can
not and would not resist.
By this time-awakened Tyou know
the winters sgishness Of your days j
into some former almost youthful state of
animal spirits by your childrens' merry
hearts, ringing out their JOY bells so
clearly and by their laughter and happy
shouting voices-you are Up and take
a stealthy look below through the win
dow.
Look Look! Will and Charlie and
Jacob and Benjamin (you never call tho
Franklinl havo n merry battle in the
snow, and the harmless powder flies and
smokes around their glowing faces that
half-illumine it with their rosy flushing
brightness; and the innocent cannon
balls fly in quick succession to and fro,
and instead of taking head of, merely
decapitate mad cap combattant, now
and then, and leave him hors dit combat
for confused moment only, when like
the reserve at Waterloo he is cup and
at them again.
You think this, behind your window
pane, and then young Napoleon's snow
ball generalships of old at the military
school arises, and soon the mimic cannon
balls become cannon balls in real ty, and
the boys-plays become battle, and The
snow powder which. now CLEANS into
! the just rising sun twink;ng mist Of