The Reluctant Dragon
Footprints in the snow have been unfailing provokers of sentiment ever
since snow was first a white wonder in this drab-coloured world of ours. In
a poetry-book presented to one of us by an aunt, there was a poem by
one Wordsworth in which they stood out strongly with a picture all to
themselves, too—but we didn't think very highly either of the poem or the
sentiment. Footprints in the sand, now, were quite another matter, and we
grasped Crusoe's attitude of mind much more easily than Wordsworth's.
Excitement and mystery, curiosity and suspense—these were the only
sentiments that tracks, whether in sand or in snow, were able to arouse in
us.