OLD MOTHER FROST.

The woodcutter's prettiest daughter was lost.
She came to the country of old Mother Frost,
Who set her to scrub and to bake and to spin,
And keep house and garden as neat as a pin ;
And shake up the beds so that people might cry :
"Old Mother Frost's plucking geese in the sky !"
She did them so well that the dame in her glee
Said the woodcutter's daughter rewarded should be,
And when she returned to her kinfolk they found
She glistened with gold from her head to the ground.

The woodcutter's ugliest daughter was lost.
She came to the country of old Mother Frost.
But oh, she was lazy ! she tangled the thread,
She left the floors dirty, and burned all the bread.
The pillows grew lumpy, and saddest of all,
She shook them so badly no feathers would fall.
The old woman whipped her in spite of her age,
And when she got back to her kinfolk they found
She glistened with pitch from her head to the ground.

Elizabeth Fleming

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“Old Man Winter, like the elfish creature Jack Frost, is a personification of winter, sometimes also called Father Winter. He may be an alternative older name for Father Christmas and has been identified with the Old English god Woden. In Russian folklore, Old Man Winter is known as Morozko and is also identified with Ded Moroz, the Russian Santa Claus. In English folklore, Jack Frost appears as an elfish creature who personifies crisp, cold, winter weather; a variant of Father Winter (also known as “Old Man Winter”). Some believe this representation originated in Germanic folklore specifically in the Anglo-Saxon and Norse winter customs. Tradition holds Jack Frost responsible for leaving frosty crystal patterns on windows on cold mornings.”