re pulled
along, and got a good ride. It was so capital! Just as they were in the
very height of their amusement, a large sledge passed by: it was painted
quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white
mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head. The sledge drove
round the square twice, and Kay tied on his sledge as quickly as he
could, and off he drove with it. On they went quicker and quicker into
the next street; and the person who drove turned round to Kay, and
nodded to him in a friendly manner, just as if they knew each other.
Every time he was going to untie his sledge, the person nodded to him,
and then Kay sat quiet; and so on they went till they came outside
the gates of the town. Then the snow began to fall so thickly that the
little boy could not see an arm's length before him, but still on he
went: when suddenly he let go the string he held in his hand in order
to get loose from the sledge, but it was of no use; still the little
vehicle rushed on with the quickness of the wind. He then cried as loud
as he could, but no one heard him; the snow drifted and the sledge flew
on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges
and ditches. He was quite frightened, and he tried to repeat the
Lord's Prayer; but all he could do, he was only able to remember the
multiplication table.

The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just
like great white fowls. Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge
stopped, and the person who drove rose up. It was a lady; her cloak and
cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazzling
whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.

"We have travelled fast," said she; "but it is freezingly cold. Come
under my bearskin." And she put him in the sledge beside her,
wrapped the fur round him, and he felt as though he were sinking in a
snow-wreath.

"Are you still cold?" asked she; and then she kissed his forehead.
Ah! it was colder than ice; it penetrated to his very heart, which was
already almost a frozen lump; it seemed to him as if he were about to
die--but a moment more and it was quite congenial to him, and he did not
remark the cold that was around him.

"My sledge! Do not forget my sledge!" It was the first thing he thought
of. It was there tied to one of the white chickens, who flew along with
it on his back behind the large sledge. The Snow Queen kissed Kay once
more, and then he forgot