this is the one night of the year for reading “snow bound.” every man with new england blood in his veins should read whittier’s poem at least once a year. that becomes as much of a habit as eating baked beans and fishballs. for two days now the storm has roared over our hills and shut us in. it must have been on just such a night as this that emerson wrote:
“the sled and traveler stopped; the courier’s feet
delayed; all friends shut out, the housemates sit
around the radiant fireplace enclosed
in a tumultuous privacy of storm.”
of course, emerson lived at a time when the telephone and the electric light and the steam-heated house were dreams too obscure even for his great mind to comprehend. so, in spite of this fearful storm, the strong arm of the electric current still reaches our house, and while the telephone is slow, we can get our message through, after a fashion. but we are shut in. the car and the truck are useless tonight. the horses stamp contentedly in the barn—not troubling about the head-high drifts which are piled along the roadway. a bad night for a fire or for a hurry call for the doctor; but why worry about that as we sit here before the fire?
i got my copy of “snow bound” in 1872, and i have read the poem at least once each year since, and i have carried it all over the country with me. it is a little shabby now, but somehow that is the way i like to see old friends:
“shut in from all the world without
we sat the clean winged hearth about,
content to let the north wind roar
in baffled rage at pane and door,
while the red logs before us beat
the frost-line back with tropic heat.
...
“between the andiron’s straddling feet
the mug of cider simmered low,
the apples sputtered in a row
and close at hand the basket stood
with nuts from brown october’s wood.
...
“what matter how the night behaved?
what matter how the north wind raved?
blow high, blow low, not all its snow
could quench our hearth fire’s ruddy glow.”
...
there is no finer picture of the old-time northern farm home, and we yankees are bound to think that with all her faults new england did in those days set the world an example of what a farm home ought to be. so i lay aside the book and look about me to see how close new jersey can come on this fearful night to matching this old-time picture.
here we are before the fire. great logs of apple wood are blazing up into the black chimney. in whittier’s day the open fire produced all the light, but here we have our electric light blazing, and i think as i sit here how miles away the great engines are working to send the current far up among the lonely hills to our home. for supper we had a thick tomato soup, a big dish of cornmeal mush—the grain ground in our little grinder—pot cheese, entire wheat bread and butter, baked apples and all the milk we could drink. just run that over and see if it does not furnish as fine a balanced ration and as good a lot of vitamines as any $2 dinner in new york—and nearly 80 per cent of it was produced on this farm. now the girls have washed the dishes and planned breakfast, and here we are. mother sits in the first choice of seats before the fire. that is where she belongs. she is mending a pair of stockings, and as her fingers fly, no doubt she is thinking of those warmer days back in mississippi. my daughter has just put a new record into her victrola. the music comes softly to us—“juanita.”
“soft o’er the fountain
lingering falls the southern moon.”
i wonder what whittier’s folks would have said to that! two of the little girls are looking over some music, trying to get the air in “i dreamt that i dwelt in marble halls!” there is no “frost line” in this house for the fire to drive back, for there is a good hot-water radiator in the corner. the pipe from the spring seems to have frozen, but the faithful old windmill, standing over the well at the barn, has stretched out its arms to catch this roaring gale and make it carry the water up to the tank. thomas and three of the boys are playing parchesi, while the rest of the company give them all advice about playing from time to time. i have a big chair by the corner of the fireplace—where grandfather is supposed to sit—and little rose is curled up on my lap eating an apple. i wish you were here. we could easily make room for you right in front of the fire, and we would surely call on you for a new story.
the wind is howling on the outside. as we sit here in comfort there comes an eager, pitiful face at the window pleading to be taken in. no, it is not the old story of the wayward child coming back to the lights of home. the nearest we can come to that at hope farm is the black cat with the dash of white at her face and throat. she and her tribe are expected to stay at the barn and catch rats, but there she is out in the cold looking in at the window. mother is as stern as a spartan mother when it comes to cats in the house. she will not have them there. but, after all, they are hope farm folks, and the little girls plead so hard that the good lady looks the other way when the baby opens the door. in comes the black cat and, though they were not invited, three of her brothers and sisters run in with her! so now i shall sit with little rose on my lap, while on her lap is a cushion on which the white-faced kitty purrs contentedly. in the original “snow bound” the mug of cider simmered between the andirons. no hot drinks for us. a little of that cold pasteurized apple juice goes well. we see no use in cooking apples before the fire. there is that big basket of baldwins by the table. help yourself—we like them cold. cherry-top was ahead in the game, but thomas has just taken his leading “man” and sent him back to the starting point. the boy is a good sport. he takes a big bite out of a fresh baldwin and goes after them again. the nearest we can come to “nuts from brown october’s wood” is a big bag of roasted peanuts. we have all been eating them and throwing the hulls at the fire. they have accumulated so that mother’s idea of neatness compels her to get up and brush them all into the blaze. i did not tell you that we are starting up our little florida farm again. jack will grow a crop of sugar cane and peanuts.
and so, here in new jersey, as well as in old-time new england, we care not how the wind blows or how the storm roars. this is home, and we are satisfied with it—all of us, from the white-faced kitty up to the hope farm man. we have all worked to make this home. it is a co-operative affair. none of us could be called rich or great, yet nothing could ever buy what we see in our big fire. every now and then mother looks up from her work and glances across the room at me with a smile. i know what she has in mind. some of us rise to the power of animals in our ability to communicate thought without words. life has been very much of a fight with us, but it seems worth while as we look at this big room full of eager young people, content and happy with the simple things of life. as little rose snuggles up closer to me and pulls the kitty with her i begin to think of some of the complaining fault-finding people i know. i do know some star performers at the job of pitying themselves and magnifying their own troubles. on a night like this i will wager an apple that they are pouring out the gloom and trouble like a man tipping over a barrel of cold water. it’s their rheumatism or their debts or the administration or the republican party, or something else that they hold responsible for their troubles. i wish i could have some of those fellows here tonight, and also some of you folks who know the joy of looking on the bright side. we would do our best to rub some of the gloom out of them. i will guarantee that any one of us could, if we wanted to, tell the truth about our own troubles so that these gloomy individuals would look like “pikers” in their poor little self-pity! i would like to read extracts from two new books to them. one is “a labrador doctor,” by w. t. grenfell; the other, “the great hunger,” by john bojer.
i have just been reading these books, and i shall read them over again. dr. grenfell has given his life to service in the far north among the fishermen of labrador. a man of his ability could easily have gained fame and wealth by practising his profession in some great city. he went where he was most needed—into the cold, lonely places where humanity hungers and suffers for help. it has always seemed to me just about the noblest thing in life for a man of great natural ability to gain what science and education can give him and carry that great gift out to those who need it most. grenfell did that, and this modest story of his life is wonderful to anyone who can get the message. i have always thought that the greatest teachers and preachers and wise men generally are not so much needed in the big cities as in the lonely country places. the city owes all it has in men and money to the country, but it will seldom acknowledge the gift. the city itself is able to offer as a gift knowledge, science and training. yet those who receive this gift desire for the most part to remain in the city, when they should carry their gift out into the lonely and hard places where the city must finally go for strength. the storm seems hard tonight, but it is a mere zephyr to the winters which dr. grenfell’s people endure. i wish i could tell you some of the wonderful things which have happened in that lonely land. at one place the doctor found a girl dying of typhoid. there was no way of saving her, and as soon as she was buried it was necessary to burn the rude bunk and the straw in which she lay. they carried it to the top of a hill and built a fire. for several days one of the fishing boats had been lost at sea in the fog, and had been given up for lost with all on board. the despairing men in that boat—far out at sea—saw the light when that hideous bed was burned and were able to get to land! some of you self-pitying people ought to read how dr. grenfell organized a little orphans’ home to care for the little waifs of this lonely place. in one case a little girl of four, while her father was away hunting, crawled out into the snow, so that both legs were badly frozen. gangrene set in halfway to the knee, and the father actually chopped both legs off to save her life! think of such a child in the frozen north. i think of her as little rose hugs the kitty close. dr. grenfell took this child, operated on her, obtained artificial legs, and now she can run about like other children. i wish i could tell you more about this book. at one time two men came together after medicine. one took a bottle of cough mixture, the other a strong turpentine liniment for a sprained knee. by mistake they mixed up the medicine. one rubbed the cough medicine on his knee, the other drank the liniment. if i had some fellow who thinks the lord has put a special curse on him before our fire tonight i would tell him what others have endured. the chances are we could make him contribute something to the cause before we were done with him.
the other book i mentioned, “the great hunger,” is a story of norwegian life and, as i think, very powerful. a boy born to poverty and disgrace grew up with a great hunger in his heart—he knew not what it was. he felt that power and material wealth would bring him the happiness he sought. he gained education, power, wealth and love, yet still the great hunger tortured him. poverty, sickness, the deepest sorrow fell upon him, and at last the great hunger was satisfied by doing a needed service for the man who had done him the most hideous wrong! i wish i could tell you more about it. it is a powerful book; but it is time for little rose to go to bed. off she goes with a hug for all, and the children follow her one by one. i am not going to put more logs on that fire. let it die down. the end of the day has come. let the storm howl through the night like a pack of wolves at the door. they cannot get at us. even if they did they can never destroy the memory of this night.
