d seated herself on his back; and
the sea-bird flew away with her far over the hills and vales, and
pleasant fields, and beyond the great ocean till he reached the palace
of the Snow-King.

The Palace was built of blocks of ice, filled in with snow, and arched
over with a graceful snowdrift for a roof; while lofty colonnades of
snow, supported by pillars of ice, led the way to the audience chamber,
which glistened with diamonds and crystals of the most sparkling
brilliancy. The Snow-King wore on his head a crown of ice-diamonds,
while from his shoulders hung gracefully a pure white cloak, fringed
with glittering icicles and fastened at the neck with a crystal brooch.

Violet shivered a little as she entered this coldly beautiful palace,
for she was accustomed to bask all day long in the warm sunshine, and
had never trod on anything colder than the soft grass; but she quickly
recovered herself, and gliding with a swift graceful movement to the
foot of the Snow-King's throne, she bent on one knee before him, and
told him for what she had come.

Then the Snow-King looked kindly upon the little fairy, and raised her
gently with his ice-cold hands.

"Beautiful fairy," he said, "you are the first of your race who ever
visited my kingdom, and never have I seen aught so radiantly lovely
before. Your wish is granted, I only would it were twice as costly;"
and, turning to the snow-spirits, who were gathering lovingly round the
bright being who had ventured so boldly into their ice-bound regions,
he bade them mould wings of the purest and most delicate snow for their
fairy visitant. Then the King lay back on his throne, and looked at the
sweet modest face of the little fairy, and at her graceful form, with
the bright hair rippling in sunny waves over the violet robe, till,
moved by some sudden impulse, he came and knelt down at Violet's feet.

"Sweet fairy," he said, as Violet turned her wondering eyes upon him, "I
have long ruled as monarch among my Snow-Spirits, and I have been very
proud of the cold splendour of my palace, with its glittering crystals
and pillars of ice, and I have laughed when the Fire-King has taunted me
from afar with its lack of warmth and colour, for I cared not for
either; but now it seems to me that the bright gleam of your golden
hair, and the warm glow of your violet robe, are far more beautiful than
my ice-diamonds and sparkling crystals, and that my palace will be very
bleak and desolate when yo