It flowed on, black through its banks of white.
Away again stretched the shine to the town, where every roof had the
sheet that was let down from heaven spread over it, and the streets lay
a foot deep in yet unsullied snow, soon, like the story of the ages, to
be trampled, soiled, wrought, and driven with human feet, till, at
last, God's strong sun would wipe it all away.
From the door opening into this fairy-land, Alec sprang into the
untrodden space, as into a new America. He had discovered a world,
without even the print of human foot upon it. The keen air made him
happy; and the face of nature, looking as peaceful as the face of a
dead man dreaming of heaven, wrought in him jubilation and leaping. He
was at the school door before a human being had appeared in the streets
of Glamerton. Its dwellers all lay still under those sheets of snow,
which seemed to hold them asleep in its cold enchantment.
Before any of his fellows made their appearance, he had kneaded and
piled a great heap of snowballs, and stood by his pyramid, prepared for
the offensive. He attacked the first that came, and soon there was a
troop of boys pelting away at him. But with his store of balls at his
foot, he was able to pay pretty fairly for what he received; till, that
being exhausted, he was forced to yield the unequal combat.
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