76 ASLEEP AND AWAKE. 



arrived, and with it a frost of intense severity, our busy-body 

 shut herself up in her warm underground quarters, and having, 

 no doubt, taken first a complacent review of her well-spent 

 summer day, fell into a comfortable dose and from thence into 

 a slumber, profound as that fabled of the Seven Sleepers. So 

 deep and long her nap, that the merry Christmas bells did not. 

 wake her, nor yet the shouts of merrier children, when they 

 c;ime trampling and jumping over head to gather the scarlet 

 holly berries which abound near her habitation. On went 

 the frost, and with it on went the good house-wife's com- 

 fortable snooze ; but one day the sharp north-east having 

 whistled his own lullaby, hi* brother, the soft south-west, arose 

 to do duty in his stead. The sun, at the same time, drew aside 

 his fog curtain, and shone out so bright and warm, as to pene- 

 trate even to our sleeper's underground chamber. She felt its 

 reviving power, and with a yawn and a stretch (which if com- 

 mensurate with the duration of her slumbers must have been 

 of tremendous length) she rubbed her eyes and awoke. Like 

 the sluggard, however, (though sluggard she was none,) she 

 turned and tried to sleep again; but it would not do : certain 

 uneasy sensations, not very difficult to account for after a six 

 weeks' abstinence, soon drove away all her drowsiness. She 

 would certainly have arisen and have gone to her cupboard, 

 only that with her, the comforts and consolations of a corner 

 cupboard were mysteries unknown. Nevertheless, awake up 

 she did, and looked round upon her friends, the companions 



