No, he was never lame--a young, young man, And strong!---- Oh, lost his way? You say ’e’d lost his way? Well, maybe that might tire ’im just a bit, But oh, he’d find it! Oh, trust him for that! He’s been all round the world--and lost his way Through coming ’ome. Yes, yes, he’s coming ’ome. Ah! Now I see ’im. Yes, I’m ’ere, I’m ’ere! Waiting for yer,--waiting--expecting yer. Ah, never mind. Though yer don’t love me, still It’s back to me you come! Yer can’t ’elp that That’s ’ow God made yer. That’s why He made me. No! I can’t reach yer. No, he’s got my hand, Holding it, holding it,--and won’t leave go! I’d ’elp yer, if I could. I’d die for yer! But he won’t let me go. ----I’m cold, I’m cold! Can’t see!--I’ve lost my way, And I shan’t--never--any more come home! (_The snowman looses her hand, and she falls. The mist clears from a dark stage, the walls close in again, the chamber remains in darkness. A figure stumbles past the window, the door is thrown open, the Snowman stands aside. Enter_ JASPAR.) JASPAR.-- Home! Home, at last! Who’s there? Anyone there? What? Nobody? No fire? Oh, bitter cold---- It feels like death! (_Fumbles for match-box_) Here, fool, give me a light! Light, can’t yer? Ah, what’s that, what’s that, what’s that? Who are yer? What for are you lying there? Get up! Get up! What makes ’e be so cold? So clammed? (_Strikes a light_) What the,--! My wife! It be my wife! Wife! Don’t ’e hear me? It be I, come back, Jaspar come back--Jaspar come home again---- Jaspar--why don’t ’e answer? There, now there! Have that to warm yer. Oh, ye’ll soon come round, Ye’ve starved yerself, ye--! Ah--she’s dead, she’s dead! (_He lifts her onto the chair by the hearth and now holds the candle to her face, then draws away with a growing fear of what other deaths may be there. He advances to the crib, and looks in on the sleeping children. He assures himself that they are alive. It startles him to fresh hope; he turns back to his wife_) No, she ain’t dead, she can’t be, they’re alive! She wouldn’t leave ’em. No, she can’t be dead. Wife, do ’e hear? The children be alive. You wouldn’t go and leave ’em, no, not you---- ’Twouldn’t be like yer. There, my--there, come, come! Take warmth o’ me,--out of my ’eart and soul! I’ll make ye warm. (_He takes her to his heart_) Why, I was coming ’ome. I’d ’a been yere before, but I lost my way, Got buried in the snow. Then I ’eard you A-callin’ me! I thought I saw your face, Then it all went, and then, my feet grew strong, Life come to me, and warmth, and here I be! Can’t ’e speak to me? Be ye gone so far As ’e can’t ’ear me? Not the word I’d say To tell ’e how I loved ’e? Ah, now I be in ’ell, I be in ’ell! And ’a won’t never know. (_Her hand falls out across chair, pointing toward the crib_)