Answer:Readers receive information about the snow-image’s character indirectly.
The following excerpt from the story shows the effect the snow-image has on Violet and Peony. It indicates that Violet and Peony are thrilled that the snow-image is real:
The tone was not a tone of surprise, although they were evidently a good deal excited; it appeared rather as if they were very much rejoiced at some event that had now happened, but which they had been looking for, and had reckoned upon all along.
The snow-image’s actions in the following excerpt indicate that she is in tune with animals:
She, on her part, was evidently as glad to see these little birds, old Winter’s grandchildren, as they were to see her, and welcomed them by holding out both her hands. Hereupon, they each and all tried to alight on her two palms and ten small fingers and thumbs, crowding one another off, with an immense fluttering of their tiny wings. One dear little bird nestled tenderly in her bosom; another put its bill to her lips.
The snow-image’s looks in the following excerpt indicate that she is unique and unlike any ordinary child:
There was certainly something very singular in the aspect of the little stranger. Among all the children of the neighborhood, the lady could remember no such face, with its pure white, and delicate rose-color, and the golden ringlets tossing about the forehead and cheeks. And as for her dress, which was entirely of white, and fluttering in the breeze, it was such as no reasonable woman would put upon a little girl, when sending her out to play, in the depth of winter.
The snow-image’s silence, or lack of speech, suggests that she is unlike the human children.