Read "New Year's Eve: a Waking Dream" by George MacDonald online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
I have not any fearful tale to tell / Of fabled giant or of dragon-claw, / Or bloody deed to pilfer and to sell / To those who feed, with such, a gaping maw; / But what in yonder hamlet there befell, / Or rather what in it my fancy saw, / I will declare, albeit it may seem / Too simple and too common for a dream.
Two brothers were they, and they sat alone / Without a word, beside the winter's glow; / For it was many years since they had known / The love that bindeth brothers, till the snow / Of age had frozen it, and it had grown / An icy-withered stream that would not flow; / And so they sat with warmth about their feet / And ice about their hearts that would not beat.