It was a beautiful, sunny winter’s day. The sky shone bright blue and the snow gleamed pure white as a newly washed linen sheet. The little Witch was sitting at the edge of the wood with Abraxas the raven, sunning herself. All at once, they heard children’s voices shouting happily somewhere near. The little Witch sent Abraxas the raven off to see what was going on. After a little while he came back.
“It’s some children,” he said, “tiny little scraps about six or seven years old. They’re building themselves a snowman over there in the meadow behind the hedge.”
“I must have a look at it,” said the little Witch. It wasn’t far to the meadow behind the hedge, so she went on foot.
The snowman was just finished. He had a carrot stuck in his face for a nose and lumps of coal for eyes. His hat was a battered old saucepan. He held a birch broom proudly in his right hand.
The children didn’t notice the little Witch when she appeared from behind the hedge. They were holding hands and dancing round the snowman, hopping from one leg to the other. As they danced they sang.
Snowman with your nose so red,
Old tin saucepan on your head,
Snowman with your coat so white,
Don’t you think the frost will bite?
The little Witch was delighted with the beautiful snowman and the children. She would have liked to join in and dance with them.
But then, all of a sudden, some big boys came running out of the wood nearby, seven of them in all. Shouting and yelling, they fell on the snowman and knocked him down. They kicked the saucepan about and broke the broomstick in two, and they rubbed snow in the faces of the children who had just been dancing so happily. Goodness knows what else they might have done to the children if the little Witch hadn’t stepped in.
“Hey there!” she said angrily to the big boys. “You leave the children alone. If you don’t stop it I’ll give you a good thrashing with my broomstick!”
At that the big boys ran away. But the lovely snowman was spoilt.
The children felt very sad and hung their heads. The little Witch understood. She tried to comfort the children.
“Build yourselves a new snowman,” she suggested. “What about that?”
“If we build another snowman the big boys will come and knock the new one down too,” said the children. “Besides, they’ve broken our broom in two, and we haven’t got another.”
“I think it only seemed broken,” said the little Witch, bending over the broken broom. “There – look at it.”
She showed the broom to the children. They saw that it was mended.
“Build your snowman and don’t worry,” the little Witch encouraged the children. “You needn’t be afraid of the big boys. If they come back they’ll get what they deserve, you can be sure of that!”
The children let her persuade them. They built a new snowman. He was even finer and more magnificent than the first one, because the little Witch was lending a hand this time.
But when the new snowman was finished, it wasn’t long before the seven boys came tearing out of the wood again shouting and yelling. The children were frightened and wanted to run away.
“Stay here!” cried the little Witch. “See what’s going to happen.”
And what did happen when the seven boys came charging up?
Suddenly the new snowman began to move. Swinging his birch broom like a club he defended himself against the big boys.
He struck the first one on his fur cap with the broomstick. He gave the second a good smack on the nose with his left hand. He caught hold of the third and the fourth and knocked their heads together so hard that you could hear the crack. He flung the fifth against the sixth, so that they both fell flat on the ground taking the seventh along with them.
Once they were all lying there the snowman took his broom and swept up a big heap of snow over the boys.
That was more than they had bargained for.
They tried to shout for help, but they only swallowed snow. They threshed about desperately with their arms and legs. When at last, and with great difficulty, they had struggled free, they ran away in terror.
The snowman went calmly back to his place and stiffened up again. He stood there as if nothing at all had happened.
The children shouted for joy, for the big boys would never come back again, that was certain. And the little Witch laughed so loud over the success of her trick that tears came into her eyes, and Abraxas the raven cried in alarm, “Stop, stop, or you’ll burst!”