When children go to bed at night,
We fairies come with snow-flakes white;
Cover the earth, silent and still;
House-top, and tree-top, and field and hill.

When children wake at morning light,
They find the world all snowy white.
Where, then, are we? Who of you know?
Cosily tucked in our beds of snow.


[Footnote 2: To the tune of Schumann's "_Kindernacht._"]

THE CHIMNEY, _who is still hidden behind the Snow Fairies, wakes up
while they are singing the last line, and calls out_: What's this,
I'd like to know? Who's been decorating my face?

_The Snow Fairies stand back on either side, so that his face can now
be seen, with its white eyebrows and mustache and beard, all made of
snow-flakes; and he goes on talking in a jolly voice_: Oh, you sly
ones, you are at your old tricks. Well, well, I'm really glad to see
you. It seems like old times to have snow at Christmas. Now don't mind
me; go on with your work; cover me up with your snowflakes as much as
you choose--eyes, nose, mouth, and all; I don't mind it a bit.

_So the Snow Fairies, moving softly about, hang more snow-flakes on
the chimney, even over his eyes and nose and mouth, which show dimly
through the snow. His eyes blink now and then._