It had been nearly three months since Maradino had seen green. Day after day he gazed from the windows of his father's home, waiting for the torrent of snow to cease. After many weeks of cold, Maradino grew impatient. Who was the winter to decide how long to stay and when to go? Shouldn't a wise fellow, say, Maradino himself, for instance, make such an important decision? It was settled: Maradino himself would clear winter from the land, and its denizens would laud him as a hero.