THE SNOW QUEEN. - 287

Then she sprang out of bed, and clasped her mother round
the neck and pulled her beard, crying,

“Good morning, my own old nanny-goat.” And her mother
filliped her nose till it was red and blue; and it was all done for
pure love.

When the mother had drunk out of her bottle and had goneto
sleep upon it, the robber girl went to the Reindeer, and said,

“T should like very much to tickle you a few times more with
the knife, for you are very funny then; but it’s allthesame. I'll
loosen your cord and help you out, so that you may run to Lap-
land; but you must use your legs well, and carry this little girl
to the palace of the Snow Queen, where her playfellowis, You’ve
heard what she told me, for she spoke loud enough, and you were
listening.”

The Reindeer sprang up high for joy. The robber girl lifted
little Gerda on its back, and had the forethought to tie her fast,
and even to give her own little cushion as a saddle.

“ There are your fur boots for you,” she said, “ for it’s growing
cold; but I shall keep the muff, for that’s so very pretty. Still,
you shall not be cold, for all that: here’s my mother’s big muffles
—they ’ll just reach up to your elbows. Now you look just like
my ugly mother.”

And Gerda wept for joy.

“T can’t bear to see you whimper,” said the little robber girl.
“No, you just ought to look very glad. And here are two loaves
and a ham for you, now you won’t be hungry.”

These were tied on the Keindeer’s back. The little robber
girl opened the door, coaxed inall the big dogs, and then cut the
rope with her sharp knife, and said to the Reindeer,

“ Now run, but take good care of the little girl.”

And Gerda stretched out her hands with the big muffles towards
the little robber girl, and said, ‘‘ Farewell!”

And the Reindeer ran over stock and stone, away through the
great forest, over marshes and steppes, as quick as it could go:
The wolves howled and the ravens croaked. “Hiss! hiss!” it
went in the air. It seemed as if the sky were flashing fire.

“Those are my old Northern Lights,” said the Reindeer.
“Look how they glow!” And then it ran on faster than ever,
day and night.

THE SIXTH STORY.
The Lapland Woman ana the Fintand Woman.

At a little hut they stopped. It was very humble; the roof
sloped down almost to the ground, and the door was so low that
the family had to creep on their stomachs when they wanted to
go in or out. No one was in the house but an old Lapland
woman, cooking fish by the light of a train-oil lamp; and the