The Duke of Weselton and Hans were good friends. They spent a lot of time getting into trouble together. On this particular night they were sitting on a fence near the sideburns parlor, talking about one thing and another.
There was a field of crocuses across the road. Suddenly they saw something crawl out of the snow and stand up. It looked like a man, but in the dark it was hard to tell for sure. Then, it was gone.
But soon it appeared again. It walked halfway across the road, then it turned around and went back into the field.
Then it came out a third time and started toward them. By now the Duke and Hans were scared, and they started running. But when they finally stopped, they decided they were being trollish. They weren't sure what had chilled them. So they decided to go back and get a better look.
Pretty soon they saw it, for it was coming to hug them. It was wearing white snow, stick arms, and an orange carrot.
The Duke said, "I'm going to try to hug it. Then we'll know if it's real."
He walked up to it and hugged its frozen face. It had dark coal eyes sunk deep in its head. It looked like a snowman.
Hans took one look and screamed, and again he and the Duke ran, but this time the snowman followed them. When they got to the Duke's cabin, they stood in the doorway and watched it. It stayed out in the road for a while. Then it disappeared.
A year later, Hans got a frozen heart and died. Toward the end, the Duke sat up with him every night. The night Hans died, the Duke said he looked just like the snowman.