Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 June 1882 — KING WINTER’S WIFE. [ARTICLE]

KING WINTER’S WIFE.

There was no mistake about one thing Charlie had the measles. He had been feeling a little out of sorts all the morning, and came home at noon from school with a headache, which he didn’t like to own to, for wasn’t to-morrow Washington’s birthday, and weren’t the boys all going to “celebrate?” Under such circumstances he was not the boy to complain, however he felt, not he I but it seemed impossible to eat anything. Mamma, who sat beside him, was just about to remark on her little boy’s loss of appetite, when Claude, Charlie’s eldest brother, who was rather late to dinner, and had just taken his seat at table, exclaimed: “Well, youngster, who’s been painting your face ? I guess somebody has, for you Lave blue under your eyes, gray on your cheeks —and I declare your nose is as red as a cherry, and your cheeks as speckled as old Chloe’s guinea-hen! Mamma, isn’t something the matter with him ?” Mamma was already leaning over and studying her little boy’s face, while his sisters, Fan and Debbie, began declaring both at once: “ Charlie’s got the measles; some of the other boys have taken it. O, Charlie !-” Nine-year-old Charlie didn’t feel very heroic then ; there was a lump in his throat, which almost made his head spin; but mamma’s gentle hand was drawing away his chair from the table, and unfastening his napkin. “ Come, my boy, we’ll go up to the nursery,” she said, “ and see if we can’t feel more comfortable there.” Kind Brother Claude picked him off his feet, and in a twinkling carried him up to the nursery far ahead of mamma. “ There, young gentleman,” said he, laying him on the lounge, “ circumstances alter cases, you know, and you’ll have to celebrate the birthday of the father of your country in hot blankets, with sage or camomile tea, instead of taffy and pop-guns. But remember, one can be a hero without a hatchet. Good-by, boy !” and away he went. Mamma, full of sympathy, was a real comforter, and soon persuaded Charlie to go to bed. And once there, he had desire to get up and eat taffy or shoot his toy camion. According to nurse’s account next morning, “ the measles had come out finely;” on hearing which, Claude sent up a teasing message to know if Charlie “ would have his portrait taken. ” But all bad things have an end some time, and a day came when Charlie was allowed to go down stairs again, though not out of doors, because of the damp, windy weather. Tea was just being served in the back parlor, and, as the room was very warm, Debbie opened the window of an adjoining room. Suddenly a shadow seemed to flit across the ceiling, then another, and yet another. Charlie, looking up, exclaimed :

“Oli, look I There’s a bird in the room 1” “A bat! a bat!” cried several voices at once. And sure enough a bat it was. Round and round it flew, sometimes almost touching the tea things, then very near to papa’s head, now near the grate, now near the ceiling. * 1 Debbie, quick ! Shut the folding doors 1” And Debbie quickly shut off the front parlor, and papa put out the lights and swung the hall door wide open, while Fan hurriedly set wide the outer house doors, and soon the bat, attracted by the hall light, left the back parlor, and was shut out into the darkness. That was a great episode, and the excitement kept Charlie awake long after he had been tucked into bed. Once asleep, however, he had the queerest dream. He fancied himself near the foot oTthe garden, the sun was shining, and he had just been slidiag down one of the paths on his sled, plump ujuto the fence, but as he touched it a heavy sigh caused him to look about sharply. Not seeing any one, he was about to get off his sled when he heard another sigh. Then he saw, to his surprise, sitting on one of the stones of the low wall, the funniest little old woman one could imag ine. She was no taller than your handand her face was brown, like leather, and full of wrinkles and seams; her eyes were like two bright black beads, and if she had any hair it was invisible, for she wore a white fur hood, with deep cape, which covered her shoulders. She also wore funny little boots, with very high heels, all furry outside, heels and all, and fastened together by little brown thoTns from the wild rose-bush. A string of tiny bells hung around each ankle, and bells just like them were fringed around the bottom of her scarlet petticoat. She had on beside an immense white apron which nearly covered her up, while a very big pair of shears dangled from her belt by a string of braided grass.

Charlie was too much astonished to say anything, but she spoke herself, in a minute more, in a shrill, cracked, piping voice, so that he felt almost like laughing. He didn’t, however, but answered respectfully when she said : “ Who are you ? ” “My name’s Charlie Hall.” He wanted to add, ‘ ‘ And who are you ? ” but there wasn’t a chance, for she spoke up very quick. “ You want to know who I am, I suppose? Well I’m King Winter’s wife. Perhaps you don’t believe it, but Kings and Queens aren’t always tall, or large either. I like your face. Won’t you come home with me this morning and make a little visit t I’m pretty busy just now, but if you’ll use your eyes instead of your tongue, maybe you’ll enjoy yourself as much as if you were out sliding.” What happened next Charlie couldn’t quite tell, but he suddenly found himself in the strangest place imaginable. It was like an underground street with walls of clay on either side, and other streets crossing it here and ther~, “ You see,” said the talkative old lady, who seemed unable to walk like other people, but danced constantly, going a little way, then stopping, then dancing on again; “you see, from November to the first of April—sometimes as late as that—my husband, King Winter, with King Frost, his twin brother, have their factory in full blast, and. all their time is occupied. They make millions and millions of snowflakes, and pounds and

pounds of icicles, great Quantities of sheet ice for ponds and lakes, and icebergs, and great blockades of ice for coves and sluggish streams, beside statuary for public gardens and old ruins, and delicate work for parks and private residences. It all requires personal supervision; the most skillful designers are employed and the most artistic sculptors earth and sky can furnish. Every fresh order requires a fresh set of designs, so the work goes on by night as well as by day; indeed the best of it is done at night. But, you see, I’m lonely, when my husband’s away, so I’ve undertaken this work to divert my mind—don’t you see, child ? * said she, noticing Charlie’s look of wonderment. “ Why, I look after the little creatures who live above ground in summer, and would die if somebody didn’t keep them from freezing to death. See here what I’ll show you.” She danced aside a few steps to what seemed to be a knoll of earth, and pulled up some soft blanket cobwebs, and there lay more than a million grasshoppers, fast asleep. All their little legs were stiffly doubled up, and pillows of diy moss were under their heads. Charlie was going to speak, but the old lady put her finger to her lips and shook her head, while she tucked the cobweb blaukets over them and hastened asvay. The old dame suddenly assumed a comical expression, and touched a door in another clay bank which revealed about a thousand million black and brown beetles, who seemed to have finished their winter naps/ and were at work on little anvils, sharpening their antennae, and making hooks to their claws, while glow worms and fire flies furnished heat in the forges. Just beyond an archway was seen an equally interesting sight, crickets making little shrill pipes to wear under their waistcoats; and tooting now and then to test the sounds, while an old patriarch in wig and spectacles kept striking a tun-ing-fork across one of his long legs, holding it high in air, that all might get “the pitch.” In another department beautiful green locusts were manufacturing buzzes, and katydids and didn’ts were having rehearsals, in view of a tour of summer concerts. How strange it all seemed! Charlie thought this quite equal to Alice’s Wonderland. The old lady was evidently satisfied with his interest, and hurried him out. “I like you, my boy,” said she, when the door was again shut, “you’d please my husband; he says nobody is successful in any great enterprise who has a glib tongue. Now look this way.” Charlie did look, and heard and saw—what?—a noise like the roar of Niagara, and a dense black cloud. What was it? He turned just a trifle pale for a minute, till the old lady suddenly caught hold of his hand, and. little as she was, pulled him in a twinkling outside and shut the door.

“What’s that tremendous noise?” said Charlie, as soon as he could get his breath. “Mosquitoes blowing their horns,” said the old dame. “Don’t be afraid, they can’t follow us. They make an awful lot of trouble, though, they’re so fierce and crafty. I don’t see how Noah ever managed to have ’em in the ark; the dragon flies and darning needles and June bugs and gnats aren’t any trouble at all compared to mosquitoes. But would you like to see the millers aud butterflies?” Charlie looked his delight for an answer, but when they reached the archway the old lady sjvung back a thick velvet curtain and Charlie saw only a great heap of gold dust—something that looked like a quiver standing by itself full of gossamer-thread brushes, and an immense paieive uu w.- a.— > with the most brilliant colors. He turned to see where the butterflies were when the bld lady pointed to what looked Very much like a stack of bayonets. A second glance revealed bushes, tree branches, old stumps aud bits of fence rail, each one holding its brown cocoon containing the little light-winged insect, whose wings were being slowly painted in the splendid colors of the palette. It was so still there, it seemed like a place of death, and Charlie didn’t care to stay long, so they went away to a new spot where he was shown through the icy walls of a mill-pond, and saw the frogs squatting on the mud and looking as stony and dead as Egyptian sphinxes. Charlie laughed over these, and then asked what her scissors were for; the little old woman began to laugh too, and asked if he was afraid of bears.

Stepping into a little elevator balloon which seemed to have been waiting on purpose, they had a three-minutes’ ride and landed in the heart of an old Norway forest. The trees were immense, and Charlie looked up at them in wonder. Suddenly he heard a low growl, and there, close by him, was the old dame standing on a big snowball and clipping the claws of a big bear. Charlie was much frightened, but the creat - lire never moved till she was done, when somehow the bear stepped backward to the hollow trunk of the nearest tree, and, with a couple of growls, curled herself up, put her paws into her mouth, and was asleep in a wink. “Now you know what my scissors are for, don’t you? I have my hands full, you see, looking after all the earth’s creatures. Toward spring I haven’t a minute of rest; every time there’s a thaw or a warm day or two, the busy creatures think winter’s over, and I have hard times to keep them from destruction. Only last night one of my bats got out and flew away somewhere, I’m afraid he’ll die of cold if I can’t find him.” “I know ! I know ! ” cried Charlie. “He flew into our house after tea ; but James thought he got into the barn. He won’t die there, will he ? ” “No, but I’ll see after him to-mor row. Now won’t you come home with me to dinner ? Our dining-room is on Mount Hecla, in Iceland. You’ll be quite cozy and warm there. Let me see, I have a bill of fare in my pocket.” Sure enough she produced a card, which she politely handed to Charlie. It was a square piece of brown whale skin, bordered with tiny white shells, and ®n it was written : Auk’s egg-shell soup. Frozerf whale, with icicle celery. Seal, with stuffed walrus joints. “Bonnie clabber,’’ with cracked ice and snow • powder. Cream ice, flavored with cod-liver oil. Ginger ice snaps. Iced jelly, with—

Before Charlie had time to read it all. through, the old lady continued : “If you come it will give us pleasure to show you over Aurora Borealis’ picture gallery, the most famous in the world, and perhaps my husband, if ha is not too busy, will take you through his ice capital, the very heart of the Arctic regions. But if he once sees you I know he will want to adopt you as his own son and keep you always in his metropolis, the heart of the frozen lands. How would you like that ? ” “Oh, no, thank you—l mean—you’re very kind, but I’d rather not leave papa, and—” He was just going to say “ mamma,” but a great crash roused him from his strange dream. For a few minutes all was confusion ; he couldn’t tell whether he was in Norway with the bear or really on MountTHecla, or in that ice palace of the Winter King. But he felt very cold. It was scarcely daybreak. Nurse, startled by the slamming blind, had opened the window to fasten it. One or two embers only glimmered from the grate. Charlie rubbed his eyes and looked round. No little lady in red petticoat with tinkling bells was to be seen. Nurse stirred the fire into a ruddy glow, came and tucked up her little invalid, and then lay down for one more nap on her own bed. Ohwlie dreamed no more pf King

Winter’s Hic6 little wife, but he told mamma all about it next day, ana wrote it down to entertain some other little invalid. _____