﻿26 



PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



heavy, as the lower portion of a large column. Then comes the 

 great Herculean task, how shall we rear it on end ? All hands are 

 at work in an instant ; we have succeeded in getting a rail under it 

 we lift, we pull, we purchase we get it half-way up, and to our 

 great disappointment it comes in two. Never mind, there is half of 

 it securely fixed ; our snow man is already three feet high. After 

 great difficulty, we add the other portion to it, and now we begin to 

 form his shoulders, his neck, his head, his arms ; we have got a 

 short pipe to stick in his mouth, (the best mouth for a pipe ;) and we 

 have got two pieces of coal for his eyes. And now we have built 

 him up, we will stand at a distance and pelt him with snow-balls, 

 and see who can first hit the pipe in his mouth, or knock off one of 

 his arms : and famous exercise shall we find it, for not one out of our 

 whole number will feel cold. 



Oh, what grand castles have we erected, ere now, out of the snow ! 

 We used to go to the lath-renders, and get him to supply us with 

 thin pieces of deal, which we reared up and placed cross-wise, and 

 piled the snow upon, making windows, and doors, and massy 

 walls, and tall turrets, worked into battlements, and a huge snow- 

 tower, that stood high and white over all; and around it we scooped 

 away the snow for the moat, and with the laths we built a bridge 

 across ; we placed snow-wardens on the battlements ; we stationed 

 snow-sentinels beside the bridge ; and when we had completed it, 

 we retreated to a measured distance, and then commenced storming 

 the castle with snow-balls, when we struck down tower, and turret, 

 and keeper, and battlement, and laid the wardens and sentinels 

 prostrate, nor ceased until we left our castle a heap of snowy ruins. 



