Through room after room Gerda followed her strange guide, her heart
thumping and thumping so loudly that she was afraid some one in the
palace would hear it and wake.

At last they came to a room in which stood two little beds, one white
and one red. The tame sweetheart nodded to the little girl.

Poor Gerda! she was trembling all over, as she peeped at the little head
that rested on the pillow of the white bed.

Oh! that was the princess.

Gerda turned to the little red bed. The prince was lying on his face,
but the hair, surely it was Kay's hair. She drew down the little red
coverlet until she saw a brown neck. Yes! it was Kay's neck, she felt
sure.

"Kay, Kay, it is I, little Gerda, wake, wake."

And the prince awoke. He turned his head. He opened his eyes--and--alas!
alas! it was not little Kay.

Then Gerda cried and cried as if her heart would break. She cried until
she awoke the princess, who started up bewildered.

"Who are you, little girl, and where do you come from, and what do you
want?"

"Oh, I want Kay, little Kay, do you know where he is?" And Gerda told
the princess all her story, and of what the ravens had done to help her.

"Poor little child," said the princess, "how sad you must feel!"

"And how tired," said the prince, and he jumped out of his little red
bed, and made Gerda lie down.

The little girl was grateful indeed. She folded her hands and was soon
fast asleep.

And Gerda dreamed of Kay. She saw him sitting in his little sledge, and
it was dragged by angels. But it was only a dream, and, when she awoke,
her little playmate was as far away as ever.

The ravens were now very happy, for the princess said that, although
they must never again lead any one to the palace by the back staircase,
this time they should be rewarded. They should for the rest of their
lives live together in the palace garden, and be known as the court
ravens, and be fed from the royal kitchen.

When little Gerda awoke from her dreams, she saw the sunbeams stealing
across her bed. It was time to get up.

The court ladies dressed the little girl in silk and velvet, and the
prince and princess asked her to stay with them at the palace. But Gerda
begged for a little carriage, and a horse, and a pair of boots, that she
might again go out into the great wide world to seek little Kay.

So they gave her a pair of boots and a muff, and when she was dressed,
there before the door stood a carriage of pure gold. T