twelve o'clock
When the snow lies thick on the ground and all the streams that babble in summer lie still in their houses of ice , you think , I daresay , that the flowers are asleep , and that nothing can wake them before the spring ? But I know of a wood where the little elves and sprites and the delicate fairies dance in a ring in the moonlight , and I will tell you of what happens there at twelve o'clock on the first night of every year . The clock in the cathedral tower booms out twelve solemn strokes , and all the church bells peal a welcome to the New Year . That is the signal for the fairies to come down on a moonbeam -- with their white dresses shining and their long yellow hair streaming . -LSB- Illustration : IVY -RSB- -LSB- Illustration : WINTER JASMINE -RSB- Most beautiful of them all is Rusialka , the queen of fairies and elves .