"I think it is out now," said he; but it was not. It was just one of
those pieces of glass from the magic mirror that had got into his eye;
and poor Kay had got another piece right in his heart. It will soon
become like ice. It did not hurt any longer, but there it was.

"What are you crying for?" asked he. "You look so ugly! There's nothing
the matter with me. Ah," said he at once, "that rose is cankered! And
look, this one is quite crooked! After all, these roses are very ugly!
They are just like the box they are planted in!" And then he gave the
box a good kick with his foot, and pulled both the roses up.

"What are you doing?" cried the little girl; and as he perceived her
fright, he pulled up another rose, got in at the window, and hastened
off from dear little Gerda.

Afterwards, when she brought her picture-book, he asked, "What horrid
beasts have you there?" And if his grandmother told them stories, he
always interrupted her; besides, if he could manage it, he would get
behind her, put on her spectacles, and imitate her way of speaking; he
copied all her ways, and then everybody laughed at him. He was soon able
to imitate the gait and manner of everyone in the street. Everything
that was peculiar and displeasing in them--that Kay knew how to imitate:
and at such times all the people said, "The boy is certainly very
clever!" But it was the glass he had got in his eye; the glass that was
sticking in his heart, which made him tease even little Gerda, whose
whole soul was devoted to him.

His games now were quite different to what they had formerly been, they
were so very knowing. One winter's day, when the flakes of snow were
flying about, he spread the skirts of his blue coat, and caught the snow
as it fell.

"Look through this glass, Gerda," said he. And every flake seemed
larger, and appeared like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star; it
was splendid to look at!

"Look, how clever!" said Kay. "That's much more interesting than real
flowers! They are as exact as possible; there is not a fault in them, if
they did not melt!"

It was not long after this, that Kay came one day with large gloves on,
and his little sledge at his back, and bawled right into Gerda's ears,
"I have permission to go out into the square where the others are
playing"; and off he was in a moment.

There, in the market-place, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie
their sledges to the carts as they passed by, and so they we