Has the snow started to melt?

    But as Thursday folded into Friday, came hopefully to mind an episode in C S Lewis' "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe". 

    All four Pevensie children have now made their way into Narnia, a magical land but where sadly for the past hundred years, Jadis the White Witch, having seized power, has reigned as the evil queen and kept the land Always Winter and Never Christmas. "How awful" sympathizes Lucy. 

    Succumbing to the Witch's wiles, Edmond Pevensie has eaten her food and gone traitorously into her service. But Lucy, Susan and Peter are with Mr and Mrs Beaver, rushing to beat the Witch and her Wolves the Secret Police to the Stone Table, where Peter, Susan and Lucy are to meet Aslan, who has returned to Narnia after long years absent. 

    As the Witch, accompanied by the duped Edmond who is now her captive, rushes toward the Stone Table in her sledge driven across crisp, dry snow fields by her slave the evil "little man" (who can hardly wait to give Edmond a taste of his whip), the sledge begins to drag and bog down.

    The snow is beginning to melt. Indeed, suddenly, everything is changing, the air is warming, trees are showing green, and flowers are bursting into bloom. 

    “This is no thaw,” said the dwarf, suddenly stopping. “This is Spring. What are we to do? Your winter has been destroyed, I tell you! This is Aslan’s doing.”

    “If either of you mentions that name again,” said the Witch, “he shall instantly be killed.”

    She forces them to abandon the sledge and continue on foot.

    But the game is over. The Witch's power is gone, her reign is ending, her days are numbered.

    Indeed, the snow has started to melt.