“Yes, mamma,” asseverated Peony, with much gravity in his crimson little phiz, “this is ’ittle snow-child.  Is not she a nice one?  But, mamma, her hand, is oh, so very cold!”

While mamma still hesitated what to think and what to do, the street-gate was thrown open, and the father of Violet and Peony appeared, wrapped in a pilot-cloth sack, with a fur cap drawn down over his ears, and the thickest of gloves upon his hands.  Mr. Lindsey was a middle-aged man, with a weary and yet a happy look in his wind-flushed and frost-pinched face, as if he had been busy all the day long, and was glad to get back to his quiet home.  His eyes brightened at the sight of his wife and children, although he could not help uttering a word or two of surprise, at finding the whole family in the open air, on so bleak a day, and after sunset too.  He soon perceived the little white stranger, sporting to and fro in the garden, like a dancing snow-wreath, and the flock of snow-birds fluttering about her head.

“Pray, what little girl may that be?” inquired this very sensible man.  “Surely her mother must be crazy, to let her go out in such bitter weather as it has been to-day, with only that flimsy white gown and those thin slippers!”

“My dear husband,” said his wife, “I know no more about the little thing than you do.  Some neighbour’s child, I suppose.  Our Violet and Peony,” she added, laughing at herself for repeating so absurd a story, “insist that she is nothing but a snow-image, which they have been busy about in the garden, almost all the afternoon.”

As she said this, the mother glanced her eyes toward the spot where the children’s snow-image had been made.  What was her surprise, on perceiving that there was not the slightest trace of so much labour!—­no image at all—­no piled up heap of snow—­nothing whatever, save the prints of little footsteps around a vacant space!

“This is very strange!” said she.

“What is strange, dear mother?” asked Violet.  “Dear father, do not you see how it is?  This is our snow-image, which Peony and I have made, because we wanted another playmate.  Did not we, Peony?”

“Yes, papa,” said crimson Peony.  “This be our ’ittle snow-sister.  Is she not beau-ti-ful?  But she gave me such a cold kiss!”

“Pooh, nonsense, children!” cried their good, honest father, who, as we have already intimated, had an exceedingly common-sensible way of looking at matters.  “Do not tell me of making live figures out of snow.  Come, wife; this little stranger must not stay out in the bleak air a moment longer.  We will bring her into the parlour; and you shall give her a supper of warm bread and milk, and make her as comfortable as you can.  Meanwhile, I will inquire among the neighbours; or, if necessary, send the city-crier about the streets, to give notice of a lost child.”

So saying, this honest and very kind-hearted man was going toward the little white damsel, with the best intentions in the world.  But Violet and Peony, each seizing their father by the hand, earnestly besought him not to make her come in.