The Snow Child

Mabel gets lost. She curls up beneath a tree in a tight ball for warmth and falls asleep. When she awakens, Jack is there banking a fire. Jack knows they must stay at the campsite at least another night because of the snow. Alone together, cuddled against the night, they talk. Now, after years, Mabel asks Jack about their dead child. Jack tells her that the baby was a boy, that Jack named him Joseph Maurice, and that he conducted a prayer service over the gravesite.

Mabel thinks about adopting Faina. The child resists. Jack cautions Mabel, “She belongs out there” (235). He explains that the girl is a courageous and resourceful orphan who survives on her own, not some helpless child.

Garrett visits and brings a gift for Mabel, an elegant silver fox hat. Mabel is flabbergasted by the extravagance. In return, she gives the young boy several books.

When Mabel accompanies Faina into the woods, she watches as Faina expertly snaps the head of a small marten caught in one of her traps. Faina then shows Mabel her hut, and Mabel begins to understand that perhaps Faina is an orphan living off the land. Moved by the experience, Mabel sketches Faina. Only now does Faina explain her exotic name—it translates as “shining” and refers to the peculiar glint of sunshine off snow. Mabel feels an overwhelming “awe” like “walking into a cathedral” (248).

In a letter, Mabel’s sister is intrigued by Mabel’s interest in the snow maiden story. Chasing fairies, she says, has always been Mabel’s talent. But Ada reassures her sister there is no problem with finding magic in real life: “Life itself is often more fantastic and terrible than the stories we believe” (251).

When the Bensons come for dinner, Mabel, under the influence of strawberry cordial, opens up to Esther about Faina and even shares the fairy tale. Despite the fantastic elements, Mabel tells Esther the child is real. Mabel is surprised when Esther agrees. “If you say this child of yours is real, then by God she must be real” (257), particularly if that girl makes Mabel feel alive.

Spring nears. Jack impulsively buys ice skates at the Alpine general store, and he and Mabel take Faina ice skating under the rich light of a full moon. Together, like a family, they laugh as they each struggle to skate with grace. Jack wishes that spring would never come and that the snow would never melt.