ow perhaps I shall give birth to a Fire-son!' The man
laughed at his wife's words, and thought it was a good joke. But he
ceased to think it a joke when his wife shortly afterwards gave birth
to a boy, who screamed lustily till he was put quite close to the
fire, and who nearly yelled himself into a fit if the Snow-daughter
came anywhere near him. The Snow-daughter herself avoided him as much
as she could, and always crept into a corner as far away from him as
possible. The parents called the boy simply 'Our Fire-son,' a name
which stuck to him all his life. They had a great deal of trouble and
worry with him too; but he throve and grew very quickly, and before he
was a year old he could run about and talk. He was as red as fire, and
as hot to touch, and he always sat on the hearth quite close to the
fire, and complained of the cold; if his sister were in the room he
almost crept into the flames, while the girl on her part always
complained of the great heat if her brother were anywhere near. In
summer the boy always lay out in the sun, while the girl hid herself
in the cellar: so it happened that the brother and sister came very
little into contact with each other--in fact, they carefully avoided
it.

[Illustration: The Snow Maiden]

Just as the girl grew up into a beautiful woman, her father and mother
both died one after the other. Then the Fire-son, who had grown up in
the meantime into a fine, strong young man, said to his sister, 'I am
going out into the world, for what is the use of remaining on here?'

'I shall go with you,' she answered, 'for, except you, I have no one
in the world, and I have a feeling that if we set out together we
shall be lucky.'

The Fire-son said, 'I love you with all my heart, but at the same time
I always freeze if you are near me, and you nearly die of heat if I
approach you! How shall we travel about together without being odious
the one to the other?'

'Don't worry about that,' replied the girl, 'for I've thought it all
over, and have settled on a plan which will make us each able to bear
with the other! See, I have had a fur cloak made for each of us, and
if we put them on I shall not feel the heat so much nor you the cold.'
So they put on the fur cloaks, and set out cheerfully on their way,
and for the first time in their lives quite happy in each other's
company.

For a long time the Fire-son and the Snow-daughter wandered through
the world, and when at the beginning of wi