Horace Elisha Scudder

Stories from My Attic Horace Elisha Scudder

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1896 Excerpt: ... THE NEIGHBORS. When Christmas comes in the winter-time, us it has come ever since I can remember, the earth is very apt to get-a Christmas present of a fall of snow; and if one were an old fence, or a house-roof, or a patch of brown dry grass that had once been green, one would wish every Christmas to have the same present of a great snow fall that should cover one up, so that people would say,--" Really, how charmingly that old fence looks;" or "How the snow takes off the sharpness of that roof;" or, if they were trying to be poetical, "See what a soft ermine mantle hangs over the shoulder of that hill!" And yet, if the snow lay heavily upon the house-roof very long, one would think that there could be little heat for the dwellers inside, else it would be melted off. Everybody, however, does not keep a fire burning all night in the house, and perhaps that was the reason why two houses which stood almost touching each otner had heavy capes of snow on, the night before Christmas. It was easily to be seen, for the moon was shining brightly after the day's snow-storin, and the house-tops looked wonderfully white and cold. These two houses, though the snow fell on both alike, were as different as two men. One, with its pointed roof, was like a tall man with an old-fashioned hat on. It stood in a dignified sort of way, as if it respected itself, looking out in every direction with windows set firmly in their places, or pe.rched, leaning upon their elbows, on the roof. Each of the windows had its own private cap, which it kept on all the while of course, for its head was out-of-doors in all kinds of weather; and the front door had, besides, two pillars on which to lean. A flight of steps led up to it, so that people who wished to enter must climb up to it, and ri...