to walk.

Chapter Fourteen

The Frozen Heart

In the hut of Pon, the gardener's boy, Button-Bright was the first to
waken in the morning. Leaving his companions still asleep, he went out
into the fresh morning air and saw some blackberries growing on bushes
in a field not far away. Going to the bushes he found the berries ripe
and sweet, so he began eating them. More bushes were scattered over the
fields, so the boy wandered on, from bush to bush, without paying any
heed to where he was wandering. Then a butterfly fluttered by. He gave
chase to it and followed it a long way. When finally he paused to look
around him, Button-Bright could see no sign of Pon's house, nor had he
the slightest idea in which direction it lay.

"Well, I'm lost again," he remarked to himself. "But never mind; I've
been lost lots of times. Someone is sure to find me."

Trot was a little worried about Button-Bright when she awoke and found
him gone. Knowing how careless he was, she believed that he had strayed
away, but felt that he would come back in time, because he had a habit
of not staying lost. Pon got the little girl some food for her
breakfast and then together they went out of the hut and stood in the
sunshine.

Pon's house was some distance off the road, but they could see it from
where they stood and both gave a start of surprise when they discovered
two soldiers walking along the roadway and escorting Princess Gloria
between them. The poor girl had her hands bound together, to prevent
her from struggling, and the soldiers rudely dragged her forward when
her steps seemed to lag.

Behind this group came King Krewl, wearing his jeweled crown and
swinging in his hand a slender golden staff with a ball of clustered
gems at one end.

"Where are they going?" asked Trot. "To the house of the Wicked Witch,
I fear," Pon replied. "Come, let us follow them, for I am sure they
intend to harm my dear Gloria."

"Won't they see us?" she asked timidly.

"We won't let them. I know a short cut through the trees to Blinkie's
house," said he.

So they hurried away through the trees and reached the house of the
witch ahead of the King and his soldiers. Hiding themselves in the
shrubbery, they watched the approach of poor Gloria and her escort, all
of whom passed so near to them that Pon could have put out a hand and
touched his sweetheart, had he dared to.

Blinkie's house had eight sides, with a door and a window in each side.
Smo