The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Snow-Image, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Snow-Image
A Childish Miracle

Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Illustrator: Marcus Waterman

Release Date: October 31, 2009 [EBook #30376]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SNOW-IMAGE ***

Produced by David Edwards, Sam W. and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive.)

[Illustration: THE SNOW-IMAGE
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE]

[Illustration: THE SNOW-IMAGE
New York: James G. Gregory.]

THE
SNOW-IMAGE:

A CHILDISH MIRACLE.

BY

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

With Illustrations by Marcus Waterman.

NEW YORK:
JAMES G. GREGORY, 540, BROADWAY.
M DCCC LXIV.

C. A. ALVORD, STEREOTYPER & PRINTER, NEW YORK.

[Illustration: {Violet and Peony put the finishing touches to the
snow girl}]

The Snow-Image:

A CHILDISH MIRACLE.

One afternoon of a cold winter's day, when the sun shone forth with
chilly brightness, after a long storm, two children asked leave of
their mother to run out and play in the new-fallen snow. The elder
child was a little girl, whom, because she was of a tender and modest
disposition, and was thought to be very beautiful, her parents, and
other people who were familiar with her, used to call Violet. But her
brother was known by the style and title of Peony, on account of the
ruddiness of his broad and round little phiz, which made everybody
think of sunshine and great scarlet flowers. The father of these two
children, a certain Mr. Lindsey, it is important to say, was an
excellent, but exceedingly matter-of-fact sort of man, a dealer in
hardware, and was sturdily accustomed to take what is called the
common-sense view of all matters that came under his consideration.
With a heart about as tender as other people's, he had a head as hard
and impenetrable, and therefore, perhaps, as empty, as one of th