The first fall of snow is not only an event but it is a magical event. You go to bed in on

e kind of world and wake up to find yourself in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment, then where is it to be found？ The very stealth, the eerie quietness, of the thing makes it more magical. If all the snow fell at once in one shattering crash, awakening us in the middle of the night the event would be robbed of its wonder. But it flutters down, soundless, hour after hour while we are asleep. Outside the closed curtains of the bedroom a vast transformation scene is taking place, just as if a myriad elves and brownies were at work, and we turn and yawn and stretch and know nothing about it. And then, what an extraordinary change it is! It is as if the house you are in had been dropped down in another continent. Even the inside, which has not been touched. seems different, every room appearing smaller and cosier, just as if some power were trying to turn it into a woodcutters hut or a snug log-cabin.