Poems (Curwen)/How Willie made it Snow
How Willie Made it Snow.
Wee Willie watched with great delight The falling of the snow, And he never grew weary of the sight Of the beautiful feathery flakes of white Fluttering to and fro.
But a thaw at night changed all the scene, And when Willie awoke next day There was not a bit of snow to be seen, And he said, as he looked where it had been. "God might have let it stay."
And day by day he watched again For the snow to re-appear; But my bonnie laddie looked in vain, The beautiful snow came not again, For Spring herself was here.
One night, as usual, he went to bed (He never has a light), And as I kissed the golden head, The darling clung to me and said, "Do rue sink it will snow to-night?"
I laughed, as I tucked in the little thing (The nights were cold and chill), And told him how Summer would follow Spring, And the flowers would bloom and the birdies sing, And I left him lying still.
Entering my room when some hours had passed, I got a terrible fright; For a moment my heart beat wild and fast, And then I stood and stared aghast At a little form in white.
Perched high upon the window seat Was my little two years old, He was gazing out into the street, Standing in his little bare feet, Unmindful of the cold.
"What are you doing there?" I cried, Then stopped short in dismay, For something glittering I espied; Then, as the lights were brought, descried What 'twas that round him lay.
The contents of each rifled drawer Were lying all about, My trinkets scattered on the floor, And my seidlitz powders—a goodly store— Had all been emptied out,
And glittered like frost on my little son, And sparkled everywhere; For twenty powders he had undone, And tossed the contents of every one Around him in the air.
I gathered his little cold form in my arms, The while I chided him so—"Such naughty tricks poor mother alarms;"But the answer he gives all wrath disarms— "I was trying to make it snow!"