Produced by David Edwards, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from scans of public domain material produced by Microsoft for their Live Search Books site.) [Illustration: Cover] _THE LITTLE PEOPLE OF THE SNOW._ THE LITTLE PEOPLE OF THE SNOW. BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. Illustrated _FROM DESIGNS BY ALFRED FREDERICKS, ENGRAVED BY A. BOBBETT._ NEW YORK: D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 549 & 551 BROADWAY. 1873. ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, BY D. APPLETON & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] THE LITTLE PEOPLE OF THE SNOW. _Alice._--One of your old-world stories, Uncle John, Such as you tell us by the winter fire, Till we all wonder it has grown so late. _Uncle John._--The story of the witch that ground to death Two children in her mill, or will you have The tale of Goody Cutpurse? _Alice._-- Nay, now, nay; Those stories are too childish, Uncle John, Too childish even for little Willy here, And I am older, two good years, than he; No, let us have a tale of elves that ride, By night, with jingling reins, or gnomes of the mine, Or water-fairies, such as you know how To spin, till Willy's eyes forget to wink, And good Aunt Mary, busy as she is, Lays down her knitting. [Illustration] [Illustration] _Uncle John._-- Listen to me, then. 'Twas in the olden time, long, long ago, And long before the great oak at our door Was yet an acorn, on a mountain's side Lived, with his wife, a cottager. They dwelt Beside a glen and near a dashing brook, A pleasant spot in spring, where first the wren Was heard to chatter, and, among the grass, Flowers opened earliest; but, when winter came, That little brook was fringed with other flowers,-- White flowers, with crystal leaf and stem, that grew In clear November nights. And, later still, That mountain glen was filled with drifted snows From side to side, that one might walk across, While, many a fathom deep, below, the brook Sang to itself, and leaped and trotted on Unfrozen, o'er its pebbles, toward the vale. _Alice._--A mountain's side, you said; the Alps, perhaps, Or our own Alleghanies.