Three little chimney-sweepers fall down at the door of a farmhouse exhausted with fatigue and cold when the snow is falling. The most courageous of them knocks at the door to ask for help but the farmer sends them away and goes into the house quickly to sit down by the fire. Whilst these unfortunate creatures are lying almost lifeless in the snow, an angel appears in the sky who, with a gesture, transforms the scene which is divided into two parts. Here the children are in a comfortable rustic house whilst the rich man is outside, he in his turn buried in the snow which is still falling. Then it is that the children see passing before them as in a dream a fine collection of toys which forms the principal attraction of the picture. But the scene is ended and everything has disappeared. The children awake and are ragged as before, and going out they see the rich man lying in the snow; they run to his help and bring him into the house to restore him. The rich man, touched by so much kindness and ashamed of his miserliness begs their pardon.

Source: Susan Dalton