Snow Horses: A First Night Story

by Patricia MacLachlan illustrated by Micha Archer

Transcript

00:00This story is in celebration of Karen Zwick and her girls Ella and Anna, with love to

00:16them all Patti, to my cousin Ginny who skied with me in fields like these, Mitcha, Snow

00:22Horses, a first night story, by Patricia McLaughlin, illustrated by Mitcha Archer, snow falling

00:28all day all night, drifting over meadows and gardens and roads, the large and gentle percher

00:34on horses, Tim and Tom Midnight Black are excited, they wait patiently in their barn,

00:40the snow covered sheep run into the worn barn complaining in sheep talk, but Tim and Tom

00:45love winter, they love the snow, they know the large sleigh is outside, I am coming snow

00:50horses call their driver Jenny, Tim and Tom neigh to her, Jenny comes into the barn, brushing

00:56snow off her coat and hat, the sheep baa at her, she brushes the snow off the sheep

01:02too, Tim and Tom nuzzle Jenny, are you ready for the night before the new year, she asks,

01:07they snore to Jenny as if to say, yes hurry, she leads them out of the barn strung with

01:12tiny white lights, it is dusk soon to be evening, she puts on their bridles with sleigh bells,

01:18she hitches them to large sleigh, she turns on the sleigh lights and climbs up to her

01:22seat, the sleigh moves off in the snow, their sleigh bells ring, the breaths of Tim and

01:27Tom make silver clouds, the sleigh makes a whisper sound in the snow a comforting swish

01:32swish swish, Tim and Tom lift their feet happily, they love the snow, they love their work,

01:38they drive down the winding hill to the market where three trumpets play on the porch to

01:43celebrate the last night of the old year, children happily climb up into the wagon wearing

01:48blue and red and purple wool hats and mittens, there is laughter and talk, a wind comes up

01:53and blows a boy's hat into the road, someone races after it in the snow and tosses it back

01:58to him, a little golden dog comes out to run alongside the horses, a beacon in the dark,

02:04Tim and Tom pull the sleigh past the library with a light in every window across the old

02:09stone bridge along the icy river up the hill and down the hill where in every window of

02:13every house there are little lights, the town sparkles, when the wagon stops at the

02:18market the youngest child Anna in her mother's arms leans over to kiss the nose of Tom, thank

02:23you she says, then, when the children go home to sleep under quilts with stuffed bears or

02:28a pet dog, maybe a cat, Tom and Tim have more to celebrate, they pull the sleigh to the

02:34manor where the older people wait grandmothers grandfathers aunts and uncles and longtime

02:38friends, they bring blankets in the sleigh and Tim and Tom pull them up the road again

02:43past the houses with little lights houses where some of the grandmothers grandfathers

02:47aunts and uncles and longtime friends were children, there is laughter and talk, and

02:52they remember when they were young and wore blue and red and purple wool hats and mittens

02:56and remember when they rode their own houses to town to school up the hills and down the

03:01hills back home again, and at the end of the night the little golden dog has run alongside

03:06the whole way, she leaps up into her owner's arms to go home to sleep, Jenny and Tim and

03:11Tom go home again too, Jenny unhitches them, she leads them back through the doors of the

03:16barn where the little white lights still shine, the sheep are sleeping, she brushes Tim and

03:21Tom and gives them water grain and a cube of sugar each, they nuzzle her, she laughs,

03:26you've already been kissed tonight she says, soon their eyes close, they sleep, the town

03:32sleeps too, the next morning Tim and Tom will wake in sunlight, the town will wake

03:37in sunlight, the trumpets will play again happy new year to the town, to the children

03:42to the grandmothers grandfathers