274 THE SNOW QUEEN.

again, and then he had forgotten little Gerda, his grandmother,
and all at home. :

“ Now you shall have no more kisses,” said she, “ for if you
did I should kiss you to death.”

Kay looked at her. She was so beautiful, he could not imagine
a more sensible or lovely face; she did not appear to him to be
made of ice now as before, when she sat at the window and
beckoned to him. In his eyes she was perfect; he did not feel
at all afraid. He told her that he could do mental arithmetic as
far as fractions; that he knew the number of square miles and
the number of inhabitants inthe country. And she always smiled,
and then:it seemed to him that what he knew was not enough,
and he looked up into the wide sky, and she flew with him high
up upon the black cloud, and the storm blew and whistled; it
seemed as though the wind sang old songs. They flew over
woods and lakes, over sea and Jand: below them roared the cold
wind, the wolves howled, the snow crackled; over them flew the
black screaming crows; but above all the moon shone bright
and clear, and Kay looked at the long, long winter night; by day
he slept at the feet of the Queen.

THE THIRD STORY.
The Flower Garden of the Woman who could Conjure.

But how did it fare with little Gerda when Kay did not return?
What could have become of him? No one knew, no one could
give information. The boys only told that they had seen him
bind his sledge to another very large one, which had driven along
the street and out at the town gate. Nobody knew what had
become of him ; many tears were shed, and little Gerda especially
wept long and bitterly: then she said he was dead—he had been
drowned in the river which flowed close by their school, Oh,
those were very dark long winter days! But now spring came,
with warmer sunshine.

“ Kay is dead and gone,” said little Gerda.

“¥ don’t believe it,” said the Sunshine.

“He is dead and gone,” said she to the Sparrows.

“We don’t believe it,” they replied; and at last little Gerda
did not believe it herself.

“Twill put on my new red shoes,” she said one morning, “those
that Kay has never seen; and then I will go down to the river,
and ask for him.”

It was still very early ; she kissed the old grandmother, who
was still asleep, put on her red shoes, and went quite alone out
of the town gate towards the river.

“Is it true that you have taken my little playmate from me?
I will give you my red shoes if you will give him back to me!”