Thomas Winter

“ Life is just awakening in the northern woods. The winter has been long and severe. Following the course of the creek we see large cakes of ice thrown topsy-turvy all over the meadow, where they have been carried by the spring freshet. In the gorge block after block is piled; they are lying in every conceivable position. The spring sun is busy undoing what the hard winter has accomplished. The cakes of crystal ice are fast losing their deep blue color, becoming “rotten” and breaking off in huge chunks with a report that fairly startles one. ”

“ Yes, shut the door; we are for art’s sake only, not for the applause of the cold world in the car.”
Afterward, when he was angry over his own folly, his own blind, dogged, trustfulness against all the odds of evidence, Rupert Winter laid his weakness to that hour; to a woman’s sweet, untrained, tender voice singing the simple melodies of his youth. ”

“ Winter was a very ordinary person; rather pretentious, rather too fluent of speech, inclined to fretfulness, and probably of trying temper. Having for many years lived much beyond his means (in the manner so often described by Morphew) , Mr. Winter had left his family as good as unprovided for. There was money to be divided between mother and daughter, but so small a sum that it could not be regarded as a source of income. To the widow was bequeathed furniture; to Henrietta, a library of two thousand volumes ”

“ Even persons somewhat hard of hearing, are not deaf to her waterfalls. In the sublime invocation to Winter, which we have quoted—we hear Thomson recording his own worship of nature in his boyish days, when he roamed among the hills of his father's parish, far away from the manse. In those strange and stormy delights did not thousands of thousands of the Scottish boyhood familiarly live among the mists and snows? Of all that number he alone had the genius to "here eternise on earth" his joy—but many millions have had souls to join religiously in the hymns he chanted. ”

“ Where he steps, the ground turns to rock and plants bow their heads to the earth.
All the animals flee before him and hide in caves and hollow trees. The children leave their happy play and sit shivering by the wigwam fire.
One day old Winter looked about him. He saw no life in field or forest. The wind raged, and the drifts almost hid the lodges of the Indians.
"The world is conquered; I am the only king," said giant Winter. He sat alone in his lodge. The fire was white with ashes, and the tempest howled. ”

“ We are so like one family that I feel as if it ought to be good news to you all. And now,' looking towards Lady Winter, 'what do you all say? Shall we sit out on the lawn until tea? It is just pleasant now.'
'If you ask me, I should like nothing better,' said Lady Winter, rising gracefully.
'But where is he—Tom, I mean?' said Lady Elton, as they went out. 'I heard he had come back from town.'
'Reginald has carried him off for a smoke and a chat,' said Lady Winter. 'I expect they will join us presently. But young men will have their quiet hour in the evening.'
'I see them!' cried Trixy. ”

“ Moreover, it means the end of you, so far as I am concerned. Forgive me if you can, and never trust a hard-luck story-teller again. I advise you to marry Tom Winter, to whose mistaken chivalry I owe my present getaway. He is a solid citizen, and will never let you down. Good-bye, my dear, dear Gerry, and think as kindly of me as you can.
D. C.
II
Meanwhile, in the cold and glimmering darkness of one of the subterranean platforms of the Pennsylvania Station, beside the night sleeper to Pittsburgh, Mr. Moon was furtively handing over certain monies and documents to his employer. ”

“ The Winters left early. She was enjoying herself so much, Lady Winter said, that she could stay all night; but she was bound not to keep late hours. She was going to have some visitors—one in particular, whom she believed they would like to meet, and she mentioned an early day for tea at their house, begging Lady Elton to come too, and to bring Maud and dear little Trixy with her.
To her son she said as they walked home: 'A little of that kind of thing goes a long way. I wonder if those dear good people will ever learn to be rich?'
'Tom won't. He is a regular muff,' said Sir Reginald. ”

“ KING FROST AND KING WINTER Margaret T. Canby
King Winter lives in a very strong palace near the cold North Pole; it is built of great blocks of thick ice, and all around it stand high, pointed icebergs, and cross, white bears keep guard at the gate. He has many little fairy servants to do his bidding and they are like their master, cross and spiteful, and seldom do any kind actions, so that few are found who love them. King Winter is rich and powerful, but he keeps all his wealth so tightly locked up that it does no one any good ”

“ Without ado Winters put on all speed and plunged across the sands. And then:
It was much like winking; but for all that something far more impressive. To Winters, on the left hand of the car and with the east on the right hand, it was much as if the sun had suddenly leaped up and as suddenly plumped down behind the horizon—a vast vividness of scintillating opalescence: an azure, naming diamond shot by a million fire points.
Instantaneous and beautiful. In the pale dawn of the desert air its wonder and color were beyond all beauty. Winters caught it out of the corner of his eye ”

“ I sat smoking quietly while Winter told the story of our adventure. He listened most attentively.
"It's a most extraordinary story," he remarked, when the narrative was concluded. "You are quite sure neither of you touched any of that port?" [40]
Winter turned one of his pockets inside out with an expressive gesture.
"Wine may rob a man of his wits," he replied, "but it does not relieve him of fifty pounds in notes, six in gold, a watch and chain worth fifty, and a diamond which has been valued at a hundred." ”

“ Ugh! how cold I feel!”
“You’ll be better soon,” said Johannes. “You have not had time yet to feel the good of your coat.”
“What good can that do me when I’m not well?” grumbled Steve. “Hullo! you’ve got on yours.”
“Yes, sir; and it’s very welcome. The air is very cold to-night.”
“Freezing?”
“Yes, sir, hard. I daresay we shall find the fiord covered with ice in the morning. Winter is coming, sir, you see.”
“Oh, but this is only a night frost that will go away in the sun quite early.” ”

“ This is the personification of Winter. With him goes a younger beardless man dressed in white, wearing a straw hat trimmed with gay ribbons on his head, and carrying a decorated May-tree in his hands. This is Summer. At every house they receive a friendly greeting and recite a long dialogue in verse, Winter punctuating his discourse with his flail, which he brings down with rude vigour on the backs of all within reach.704 Amongst the Slavonic population near Ungarisch Brod, in Moravia, the ceremony took a somewhat different form. ”

“ His fiftieth birthday it happened to be, and it occurred to him that a man ought to do something a little notable on such an anniversary. This rounding of the half-century had attributes apart; it was no mere annual birthday; it marked the last vanishing flutter of the gilded draperies of youth; the withering of the garlands; the fading tinkle of the light music of hope. It should mark a man’s solid achievements. Once, not so long ago, Winter had believed that his fiftieth birthday would see wide and beneficent and far-reaching results in the province where he ruled. ”

“ I think he's a dear dog!"
"He is," agreed Mrs. Winter; "he's no beauty, but he's as good as gold, and so loving and faithful! I always feel thankful God sent him to me."
"I thought you said you found him?" said Jackie.
"So I did," replied Mrs. Winter smiling; "but I'm sure God put him in my way so that I might befriend him. God is love, you know, and for certain He loves every creature He made. It tells us in the Bible that He cares for the sparrows, and I'm as sure He cares for Stray as I'm sure He cares for you and me." ”

“ North Wind is the only friend of Old Man Winter. When he passes near Old Man Winter's lodge, he gives a loud shriek, and with his blustering breath he blows open the door and enters.
Near a fire which glows, but does not warm, North Wind finds a seat. There he and Old Man Winter sit and smoke, and lay their plans for the next snowstorm.
When the council is ended, North [Pg 160] Wind departs, to drive up the snow and hail from the corners of the earth.
Old Man Winter also leaves his lodge. He stalks over the mountains and valleys of the Red Children. The land becomes white with his breath. ”

“ Winter, wiping his [Pg 111] forehead, "I wonder what induced me to prose away about an unfortunate hump-backed organist to a moustached man of fashion; I am a great fool!"
"Mr. Winter," said I, gravely, "you must think moustaches and fashion terrible petrifiers of the heart, if you imagine such a tale as you have just sketched could excite no interest or sympathy in mine; believe me, there are few so thoroughly good for nothing, and I trust I am not in the minority." ”

“ Sometimes the uninformed brain is vouchsafed a gleam of unconscious genius.”
Winter appeared to be devoting his mind to circumventing the vagaries of a fragile tobacco-leaf. He was a man of powerful build, over forty, heavy but active, deep-chested, round-headed, with bulging blue eyes which radiated kindliness and strength of character. The press photographer described him accurately to Grant. ”

“ Winter's was certainly a curious turn out, with a huge basket tied on the back seat, leaving a narrow ledge for Tom to perch on; Winter himself in a broad brimm'd straw hat, the [Pg 189] expression of his features completely changed (by the total eclipse of his eyes under green goggles) into one of preternatural gravity and pre-occupation, sitting bolt upright, and considerably in the middle of the carriage, leaving small space for Miss Vernon, and terribly embarrassed with the reins. ”

“ If you don’t—”
“Well?”
“You cease to be a monitor, all the same.”
“Who says so?” asked Pledge, sharply, and with pale lips.
“I say so, as Captain here,” said Mansfield, coolly.
“You! You’re not Templeton. You may be a great man in your own eyes, but you’re only a schoolboy after all. I always understood Dr Winter was head master here, and not the boy Mansfield.”
“You prefer to appeal to Winter, then?”
“Dear me, no! Dr Winter is so well drilled into what he has to say and do here, that it would be a pity to put him to unnecessary trouble.”
“You can do as you like,” said the Captain, drily. ”

“ His aunt, herself in limited circumstances, by a careful husbandry of her means, managed to keep him at college. Kenyon was then a manual-labor institution, and the boys were required to sweep their own rooms, make their own beds and fires, bring their own water, black their own boots, if they ever were blacked, and take an occasional turn at grubbing in the fields or working on the roads. There was no royal road to learning known at Kenyon in those days. Through all this Henry Winter Davis passed, bearing his part manfully ”

“ It was he insisted on calling you up, lest [168] you should be worried. He said you were right afraid of kidnappers, and you would be sending the police after us. You can call Mrs. Winter up and find out if I am not telling you the exact facts.”
“Very well, I will,” said Winter. They met the sullen detective at the door. Cary Mercer, with his mirthless smile, led the way. Mercer rang up the hotel for Winter, himself. To the colonel’s vast relief Aunt Rebecca answered the call. ”

“ They crowd around the hearth and cling to their mother’s gown or press between their father’s knees, affrighted by the hollow roaring voice that bellows adown the wide flue of the chimney.
It is the voice of Winter; and when parents and children hear it, they shudder and exclaim, “Winter is come. Cold Winter has begun his reign already.” Now throughout New England each hearth becomes an altar sending up the smoke of a continued sacrifice to the immitigable deity who tyrannizes over forest, country-side and town. ”

“ There was a distant connection between the families of Winters and Selwyn, which served as a plea for frequent and familiar intercourse. Rose called him Cousin Robert, and under that name he was received as a sort of privileged guest at her father’s house. The farmer always welcomed him; and Rose chatted and laughed and flirted with him, until at last the flirtation ended in a serious attachment. Mr. Winters, with all his habitual foresight, had not looked for this result. ”

“ Mr. Winter offers you higher terms, and a comfortable home, and—"
"Och! what have I done, that ye should think I'm not desarvin' iv being wid yez, in throuble? Is id at this time of day ye want to be tould that I'd lave thousands to beg through the world wid yez—lave ye! och, where would I go? Sure yez the whole world to ould nurse! Lave ye, an ye in throuble. Oh! what have I done that ye [92] would spake that way to me?" And covering her face in the folds of her cloak—poor nurse sobbed aloud! ”

“ We are at a loss to imagine what sort of an impression our rustic heroine, Rose Winters, has made on the minds of our readers, from her unceremonious introduction to them through the foregoing dialogue: but at all events, she is deserving of a more detailed description. She was the daughter of a respectable farmer on Long Island, who resided in a country village, situated on the Atlantic ocean, and near a large seaport town. Mr. Winters was a shrewd, practical man, of strong natural powers of mind, and excellent plain common sense. ”

“ The man who fired it would never dare to carry it along an open road on a fine morning like this, when everybody is astir."
"You're undoubtedly right," said Winter. "But here come assorted boots. They may help us a bit."
Tomlinson was a man of method. He and Farrow had brought two wicker baskets, such as are used in laundry work. He was rather breathless.
"House—and estate," he wheezed, pointing to each basket in turn.
[Pg 68]
"Go ahead, Furneaux," said Winter. "Because I ought to stoop, I don't."
The little man choked back some gibe; the presence of strangers enforced respect to his chief. ”