306 THE STORY OF THE YEAR.

room ; and when we smile with joy at the child’s conduct, a year
is counted off from the three hundred ; but when we see a naughty
or a wicked child, we shed tears of grief,and for every tear a day
is added to our time of trial.”

THE STORY OF THE YEAR.

T was far in January, and a terrible fall of snow was pelting
down. The snow eddied through the streets and lanes ;
the window-panes seemed plastered with snow on the
outside ; snow plumped down in masses from the roofs; and a
sudden hurry had seized on the people, for they ran, and jostled,
and fell into each other’s arms, and as they clutched each other
fast for a moment, they feit that they were safe at least for that
length of time. Coaches and horses seemed frosted with sugar.
The footmen stood with their backs against the carriages, so as
to turn their faces from the wind. The foot passengers kept in
the shelter of the carriages, which could only move slowly on in
the deep snow; and when the storm at last abated, and a narrow
path was swept clean alongside the houses, the people stood still
m this path when they met, for none like to take the first step
aside into the deep snow to let the other pass him. Thus they
stood silent and motionless, till, as if by tacit consent, each sacri-
ficed one leg, and stepping aside, buried it in the deep snow-heap.

. Towards evening it grew calm. The sky looked asif it had been
swept, and had become more lofty and transparent. The stars
looked as if they were quite new, and some of them were amazingly
bright and pure. It froze so hard that the snow creaked, and the
upper rind of snow might well have grown hard enough to bear
the Sparrows in the morning dawn. These little birds hopped
up and down where the sweeping had been done; but they found
very little food, and were not a little cold.

“ Piep!” said one of them to another, “ they call this a new
year, and it is worse than the last! We might just as well have
kept the old one. I’m dissatisfied, and I’ve right to be so.”

“Yes; and the people ran about and fired off shots to celebrate
the New Year,” said a shivering little Sparrow; “and they threw
pans and pots against the doors, and were quite boisterous with
Joy because the Old Year was gone. I was glad of it, too, because
I hoped we should have had warm days; but that has come to
cothing—it freezes much harder than before. People have made
a mistake in reckoning the time!”