Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-01-23


Mover may rest there
-Demorest's Young America.
The Snow fake.
By JEAN 1NGE1ow.
There is beautiful little bird called
the Snowflake.
Avery good name for it is this
which ikens to what suggests cold and
pure Wilderness, and floats downward
so very lightly; for the Snowflake
dwells and builds in the far north,
amid Arctic frost and cold, dutteriug
about in the winter starlight, with the
flicker of the ruddy Aurora on her
white wings, and settling on floating
iceberg or desolate strand as lightly as
any other fake of silent, downy snow.
The Snowflake builds her nest and
rears her young under the shelter of
some projecting rock, overhanging
icicle, or .driftwood spar which has
been aoated up by the tide from a
shipwrecked vessel, and covered with
tangled sesweed. She builds wherever
she can find a nook or crevice-a
place just little less desolate than the
surrounding. 1esolation. Once she
built bat vail tell you how it was.
It is sorrowf,;l tale, though it has its
bright side and can never hear the
name of Snowflake without thinking
Of it.
1t was in the Arctic winter, and the
frozen snow was as hard as stone; it
glttered and sparkled, for the stars
were bright overhead, and the moon
was at the full It was high tide, and
the waves, of q deep leaden grey, were
rearing up their great crests and fling
ing themselves down with a laundering
noise on the shore.
At distance you might hear the
screaming of the sea-5irds, as they
skinned with their white wings over
the water and along the skirts of the
icebergs you might see the foxes prowl-
ling, and catch in the twilight the fiery
glitter of their tawny eyes.
Beside this there was no sound-no
movement; everything in. that .starlit
night was desolate. The world
was turning round under those
stars, for they shifted: as it
seemed, their places; and the moon
was riding on through the millions
upon millions that make up the Milky
Way; but beyond this movement there
was no change in the heavens from
hour to hour, and there was no change
or movement beneath them-everythinR
was perfectly white and utterly still.
Did I say it was white2 So it was
9 moment ago; but it has changed |!
The whole world and the heavens have
undergone changed There is quiv-
ering in the sky-a swift spire of lame
shoots across the stars. Another
There is q deep glow in the zenith,
like half transparent crimson cloud.
It spreads out suddenly then it quiv.
ers; it sinks downwards it is like q
pennon on fire shaken in an angels
hand. Now it divides-it multiplies-
and 'dushes q more rosy red; it trains
itself out before the stars, and floats
across the moon like veil-a wonder
full veil! The whole heavens are red
with it.; and the earth, which was
white, has put on crimson blush
every iceberg has crimson edge, and
every wave has crest of crimson foam.
So much for the world without. Now
let us glance at the world within. Un-
der the shelter OF some rising grounds
little curling smoke ascends. There
are some snow-huts built against that
hill, but they are buried to their roofs !;
the inmates can only creep out of the
holes which serve both for door and
chimney. There is now no sound in
those huts but the light sound of fall
ing ashes and the settling together OF
burning logs. The Esquimaux sleeps
soundly after his hard days hunting
his dogs sleep beside him, and SO do
his children. His wife alone watches
tie fire, to keep it bright for her lord
aud when he turns in his heavy slum.
bsr she wraps him again in his furs.
All the huts are equally silent-all
the men are dreaming; and the women
watching by turns those precious
fires on which their lives depend.
They only move from them
to trim clamps, or sleek the skin Of
some favorite dog when he wakes ur
and whines to them for food.
One hour passes over their heads
another change greater than that which
t;nged the white snow with crimson has
come upon them. The moonlight
when that hour commenced, fell on s
dark, wavering, advancing line, which
stole along the brow of y distant lil
like black serpent gliding onward tt
its prey. The wavering line came or
and grew distinct: it heightened out
it was made up of many members j
sped rapidly towards the huts; it wa,
n company of armed and desperat,
men.
Tho hour passes, and oh how chang
ed the scene! The s,,llen wave break
still upon the shore, but its sound il
deadened by the cries of those some
time sleepers, by heather shouts ant
savage war cries, while fast and fas
the mothers fly out into the cold. The,
drag their children after them, apt
gather their infants to their breasts
thinking it better the frost should sla1
them than the keen knife of the muir
derers. The snow is blotted now with
spots of deeper red, and the air fi:lei
with the clash OF weapons, the wailin;
of children, the heavy fall of murder
ed men, and the shrieks of mad despair
The wild creatures start from theil
lairs, and the icebergs echo with thei
cries; the screaming birds rush pas
affrighted, the dogs howl, but til,
struggle is not for long.
The hour is past; ruin and rapln,
and revenge have done their work til,
blazing firebrands are torn from tn,
hea1ths, and flung out to be quenchet
in the snow; they fare in the faces o
the dead-dcad father, dead mother
dead child. There are many of them
and none but the dogs make lamenta
ton, while, fast as tears, the snow be
gins to fall. It is more merciful tina,
warfare, more pitiful than man, TO
slowly and softly it does the work lef
undone of human hands; it frs
shrouds, and then buries, the murdere,
dead.
The sword has slain some but tn,
cold more. In few days the sun be
gins to shine. First he shows an edg
OF amber above the hills, then he come
high up and floods the sea with gold
he puts out the stars; he covers the ice
bergs with rainbow CLEANS, but then
is no human eye to greet his appear
ance: the shores of that ice-bound ba,
are utterly empty and still.
A vessel comes up from the south
it carries q little cabin-boy among it,
crew, and he thinks when he see
the ice mountains rearing up thei
desolate heads, and hears the stiff
ropes rafting, that never again shall
he behold bis native fields. He pace
the deck; it is all white with snow h
hears the plunging of the great whale