Once upon a time, in the delicate world of winter, a fragile snowflake named Snippy was born in the Chilly Mountains. She sparkled like a diamond, her six arms glistening in the frigid air under the watchful eyes of her snowflake sisters. They knew her time was near; she was ready to begin her long journey through the air and down to the earth.
But Snippy was afraid.
“What if I fall?” she asked them, trembling. “What if all my beautiful arms melt away?”
“Do not worry!” cried a voice, soft yet firm. It was the North Wind. “You are too light to feel a thing! You will dance and twirl all the way down. Just trust the air to hold you up! Now on your way, please!”
At once, Snippy felt herself lift up from the Cones of the Chilly Mountains, a place every snowflake must leave, however much they may wish to stay. Off she skipped over forests, knocking on every branch as she went; then across roofs, each covered with white like a monstrous cake or a flat snowfield surrounded by trees; off she tacked to the pig houses, and tacked again to the little house with the blue shutters, which lay under a host of whispering fir-trees.
But Snippy could not stop. Down ever down she went, farther and farther, looking on both sides of her, making friends wherever she stopped. If she had not been so happy she would have felt sorry to go.
But Snippy knew the truth: she heard the Chilly Mountains far away sigh that they could no longer enjoy her, and she wondered loudly what the snowflakes below were doing. One of her sisters, who seemed to pass rather slowly, said to her:
“Down there they are playing together, every one of them; but we are not allowed to. But when we reach the old earth, we will all become one large heavy mass, and then we will play and dance till the great Spring Night comes.”
“Will that be nice?” thought Snippy, but still she felt sorry to have to leave the lovely Balconies of the roofs and the long row of little windows. So up she jumped, all ready, and down she went.
And what a dance it was! After Swish! Swish! Farmer and all the rest said, “How it snows!” But it did not snow. Only the lovely little snowflakes revolutionized and turned round till they could feel no more what they were doing, and as Snippy twinkled along she made large heavy snow banks, one on the top of the other.
But that was not all. She knew very well that before the great Spring Night came, she could expect some many new happy events! After the first snowstorm, children would come gliding along in their sledges, and the young men and maidens would come and push their doodles and goa-ts up and down with laughter, while somebody played psalm tunes on a musical box or an organ; they would shove branches on to the snow and keep their feet warm by the blazing flames of the fires. That was also a kind of snow game!
However, Snippy did not wait for all that. She was not even sure that this was throwing light on her sister’s words, when standing up under the hedge of the great lea, well packed down by passing feet, she went slowly into a dream, so as to be quite ready for all that was coming.
“And I am a snowflake,” thought Snippy, “and Snowchildren dance every evening round and round before their windows to keep warm, and they learn their lesson by the flickering lamplight… Yes, I—a little snowflake!” And with that she fell asleep, the last of the sisters of the Chilly Mountains.