The Paradise of Children (From: "A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys")   By: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN

CONTENTS:

TANGLEWOOD PLAY ROOM Introductory to "The Paradise of Children" THE PARADISE OF CHILDREN TANGLEWOOD PLAY ROOM After the Story

TANGLEWOOD PLAY ROOM.

The golden days of October passed away, as so many other Octobers have, and brown November likewise, and the greater part of chill December, too. At last came merry Christmas, and Eustace Bright along with it, making it all the merrier by his presence. And, the day after his arrival from college, there came a mighty snow storm. Up to this time, the winter had held back, and had given us a good many mild days, which were like smiles upon its wrinkled visage. The grass had kept itself green, in sheltered places, such as the nooks of southern hill slopes, and along the lee of the stone fences. It was but a week or two ago, and since the beginning of the month, that the children had found a dandelion in bloom, on the margin of Shadow Brook, where it glides out of the dell.

But no more green grass and dandelions now. This was such a snow storm! Twenty miles of it might have been visible at once, between the windows of Tanglewood and the dome of Taconic, had it been possible to see so far, among the eddying drifts that whitened all the atmosphere. It seemed as if the hills were giants, and were flinging monstrous handfuls of snow at one another, in their enormous sport. So thick were the fluttering snow flakes, that even the trees, midway down the valley, were hidden by them the greater part of the time. Sometimes, it is true, the little prisoners of Tanglewood could discern a dim outline of Monument Mountain, and the smooth whiteness of the frozen lake at its base, and the black or gray tracts of woodland in the nearer landscape. But these were merely peeps through the tempest.

Nevertheless, the children rejoiced greatly in the snowstorm. They had already made acquaintance with it, by tumbling heels over head into its highest drifts, and flinging snow at one another, as we have just fancied the Berkshire mountains to be doing. And now they had come back to their spacious play room, which was as big as the great drawing room, and was lumbered with all sorts of playthings, large and small. The biggest was a rocking horse, that looked like a real pony; and there was a whole family of wooden, waxen, plaster, and china dolls, besides rag babies; and blocks enough to build Bunker Hill Monument, and nine pins, and balls, and humming tops, and battledores, and grace sticks, and skipping ropes, and more of such valuable property than I could tell of in a printed page. But the children liked the snow storm better than them all. It suggested so many brisk enjoyments for to morrow, and all the remainder of the winter. The sleigh ride; the slides down hill into the valley; the snow images that were to be shaped out; the snow fortresses that were to be built; and the snow balling to be carried on!

So the little folks blessed the snow storm, and were glad to see it come thicker and thicker, and watched hopefully the long drift that was piling itself up in the avenue, and was already higher than any of their heads.

"Why, we shall be blocked up till spring!" cried they, with the hugest delight. "What a pity that the house is too high to be quite covered up! The little red house, down yonder, will be buried up to its eaves."

"You silly children, what do you want of more snow?" asked Eustace, who, tired of some novel that he was skimming through, had strolled into the play room. "It has done mischief enough already, by spoiling the only skating that I could hope for through the winter. We shall see nothing more of the lake till April; and this was to have been my first day upon it! Don't you pity me, Primrose?"