"The Frost" (Feb. 1852)
by George Frederick Root, 1820-1895

[Source: pages 113-117 of "The Academy Vocalist"]

1.
The Frost looked forth one still clear night, and whis-pered,
"Now I shall be out of sight.
So thro' the val-ley and o-ver the hight
In si-lence I'll take my way;
I will not go on like that blus-ter-ing train,
The wind and the snow, the hail and the rain,
Who makes so much bus-tle and noise in vain,
But I'll be as bu-sy as they."

2.
Then he flew to the moun-tain and pow-der'd its crest;
He lit on the trees, and their boughs he dress'd
In di-a-mond beads, and o-ver the breast
Of the quiv-er-ing lake he spread
A coat of mail, that it need not fear
The down-ward point of ma-ny a spear,
That he hung on the mar-gin far and near,
When a rock could rear its head.

3.
He went to the win-dows of those who slept,
And o-ver each pane like a fai-ry crept;
Where-ev-er he breathed, where-ev-er he stepped,
By the light of the moon was seen
Most beautiful things; there were flowers and trees,
There_were bevies of birds and swarms of bees,
There were cit-ies with temples and towers, and these
All pictured in sil-ver sheen.

4.
But he did one thing that was hard-ly fair;
He peep'd in the cup-board, and find-ing there
That all had for-got-ten for him to pre-pare,
"Now just to set them a think-ing,
I'll bite this bas-ket of fruit," said he;
"This cost-ly pitch-er I'll burst in three,
And the glass of wa-ter they've left for me
Shall tchick to tell them I'm drink-ing."