It is very long in coming."
  "Very long indeed," sounded over the field, from the nearestsnow-covered hill. It might have been the echo which people heard,or perhaps the words of that wonderful old man, who sat high on a heapof snow, regardless of wind or weather. He was all in white; he had ona peasant's coarse white coat of frieze. He had long white hair, apale face, and large clear blue eyes. "Who is that old man?" asked thesparrows.
  "I know who he is," said an old raven, who sat on the fence, andwas condescending enough to acknowledge that we are all equal in thesight of Heaven, even as little birds, and therefore he talked withthe sparrows, and gave them the information they wanted. "I know whothe old man is," he said. "It is Winter, the old man of last year;he is not dead yet, as the calendar says, but acts as guardian tolittle Prince Spring who is coming. Winter rules here still. Ugh!the cold makes you shiver, little ones, does it not?"
  "There! Did I not tell you so?" said the smallest of the sparrows."The calendar is only an invention of man, and is not arrangedaccording to nature. They should leave these things to us; we arecreated so much more clever than they are."
  One week passed, and then another. The forest looked dark, thehard-frozen lake lay like a sheet of lead. The mountains haddisappeared, for over the land hung damp, icy mists. Large black crowsflew about in silence; it was as if nature slept. At length asunbeam glided over the lake, and it shone like burnished silver.But the snow on the fields and the hills did not glitter as before.The white form of Winter sat there still, with his un-wandering gazefixed on the south. He did not perceive that the snowy carpet seemedto sink as it were into the earth; that here and there a littlegreen patch of grass appeared, and that these patches were coveredwith sparrows.
  "Tee-wit, tee-wit; is spring coming at last?"
  Spring! How the cry resounded over field and meadow, and throughthe dark-brown woods, where the fresh green moss still gleamed onthe trunks of the trees, and from the south came the two firststorks flying through the air, and on the back of each sat a lovelylittle child, a boy and a girl. They greeted the earth with a kiss,and wherever they placed their feet white flowers sprung up frombeneath the snow. Hand in hand they approached the old ice-man,Winter, embraced him and clung to his breast; and as they did so, in amoment all three were enveloped in a thick, damp mist, dark and heavy,that closed over them like a veil. The wind arose with mighty rustlingtone, and cleared away the mist. Then the sun shone out warmly. Winterhad vanished away, and the beautiful children of Spring sat on thethrone of the year.
  "This is really a new year," cried all the sparrows, "now we shallget our rights, and have some return for what we suffered in winter."
  Wherever the two children wandered, green buds burst forth on bushand tree, the grass grew higher, and the corn-fields became lovelyin delicate green.
  The little maiden strewed flowers in her path. She held herapron before her: it was full of flowers; it was as if they sprunginto life there, for the more she scattered around her, the moreflowers did her apron contain. Eagerly she showered snowy blossomsover apple and peach-trees, so that they stood in full beauty beforeeven their green leaves had burst from the bud. Then the boy and thegirl clapped their hands, and troops of birds came flying by, no oneknew from whence, and they all twittered and chirped, singing"Spring has come!"