"O! he is a terrible fellow," replied Jonas. "He comes roaring and thundering along the tops of the forests at midnight, in snowstorms and hail. He buries up the whole country, he breaks down the trees, and sometimes unroofs the houses. Then, if he finds any poor traveller out, he whistles and roars about his ears, and tries to frighten him; and he throws snow into his face, and heaps it up all about him in order to bury him up if he can. "Then, besides," continued Jonas, "the old stormer has another way of making mischief. After he has got the valleys and streams covered and filled with ice and snow, he brings on a tempest of wind and rain, and fills the land with torrents, which raise the streams, and tear up the ice, and carry it down in vast, broken, and jamming blocks, which break down the bridges, and carry away dams, and spread all over the meadows, frightening a good many families out of their beds at midnight." "Is that the way that General Boreas acts?" said Rollo. "Yes," replied Jonas, "that's the way." "And who is the third Northman?" said Rollo. "His name is Old Zero," replied Jonas. "He is more than threescore years and ten, a great deal; his head is hoary, and his beard is long and gray. He creeps softly along after General Boreas has worked himself out of breath, and gone away. He curtains over all the windows with frost work in the night. He likes the night, when it is calm and still, and the stars are shining bright and cold all over the sky. And he kills more people than Boreas does." "Kills them?" said Rollo. "Yes," replied Jonas. "He makes no blustering, but he stings bitterly, and the poor traveller has his ears, and hands, and feet frozen before he knows what a cruel enemy is around him. Captain Jack Frost you may laugh at,--but as to Old Zero, you had better beware of him." Rollo laughed a good deal at Jonas's account of the three Northmen, and Jonas told him that they sometimes made some splendid curiosities, which would be beautiful for a shelf in his museum, if they would only keep. "What are the curiosities?" said Rollo. "O, all kinds of stars, and spangles, and snow-flakes, of a great many beautiful forms,--and icicles, and frost work. But they will not keep very long, unless you make a cabinet expressly for them." "_I_ can't make a cabinet," said Rollo. "O, yes, you can,--a frost-cabinet," said Jonas. "How?" asked Rollo. "Why, you must go down near the brook, in the middle of the winter, and make a little room of snow. Then you must get a large piece of thin, clear ice from a still place in the brook, and fix it in for a window. You must also get some sheets of white ice, or snow crust, for shelves, and put your frost curiosities upon them. If you make it in a cold place, they will keep for some time." "I _will_ make a frost museum," said Rollo. "I mean to go down to-day and look out a place."