emory nodded.
And the two old people with the golden crowns on their heads sat in the
red glow of the evening sunlight and closed their eyes, and--and--the
story was ended.

The little boy lay in his bed and did not quite know whether he had been
dreaming or listening to a story. The teapot stood on the table, but no
elder bush grew out of it, and the old man who had really told the tale
was on the threshold and just going out at the door.

"How beautiful it was," said the little boy. "Mother, I have been to
warm countries."

"I can quite believe it," said his mother. "When any one drinks two full
cups of elder-flower tea, he may well get into warm countries"; and then
she covered him up, that he should not take cold. "You have slept well
while I have been disputing with the old man as to whether it was a real
story or a fairy legend."

"And where is the Elder-tree Mother?" asked the boy.

"She is in the teapot," said the mother, "and there she may stay."

[Illustration]

THE SNOW QUEEN

STORY THE FIRST

WHICH DESCRIBES A LOOKING-GLASS AND ITS BROKEN FRAGMENTS

YOU must attend to the beginning of this story, for when we get to the
end we shall know more than we now do about a very wicked hobgoblin; he
was one of the most mischievous of all sprites, for he was a real demon.

One day when he was in a merry mood he made a looking-glass which had
the power of making everything good or beautiful that was reflected in
it shrink almost to nothing, while everything that was worthless and bad
was magnified so as to look ten times worse than it really was.

The most lovely landscapes appeared like boiled spinach, and all the
people became hideous and looked as if they stood on their heads and had
no bodies. Their countenances were so distorted that no one could
recognize them, and even one freckle on the face appeared to spread over
the whole of the nose and mouth. The demon said this was very amusing.
When a good or holy thought passed through the mind of any one a wrinkle
was seen in the mirror, and then how the demon laughed at his cunning
invention.

All who went to the demon's school--for he kept a school--talked
everywhere of the wonders they had seen, and declared that people could
now, for the first time, see what the world and its inhabitants were
really like. They carried the glass about everywhere, till at last there
was not a land nor a people who had not been looked at through this
dist