e you are a princess."

"No," said Gerda; and then she told her all her history and how fond she
was of little Kay.

The robber girl looked earnestly at her, nodded her head slightly, and
said, "They shan't kill you even if I do get angry with you, for I will
do it myself." And then she wiped Gerda's eyes and put her own hands
into the beautiful muff, which was so soft and warm.

The coach stopped in the courtyard of a robber's castle, the walls of
which were full of cracks from top to bottom. Ravens and crows flew in
and out of the holes and crevices, while great bulldogs, each of which
looked as if it could swallow a man, were jumping about; but they were
not allowed to bark.

In the large old smoky hall a bright fire was burning on the stone
floor. There was no chimney, so the smoke went up to the ceiling and
found a way out for itself. Soup was boiling in a large cauldron, and
hares and rabbits were roasting on the spit.

"You shall sleep with me and all my little animals to-night," said the
robber girl after they had had something to eat and drink. So she took
Gerda to a corner of the hall where some straw and carpets were laid
down. Above them, on laths and perches, were more than a hundred pigeons
that all seemed to be asleep, although they moved slightly when the two
little girls came near them. "These all belong to me," said the robber
girl, and she seized the nearest to her, held it by the feet, and shook
it till it flapped its wings. "Kiss it," cried she, flapping it in
Gerda's face.

"There sit the wood pigeons," continued she, pointing to a number of
laths and a cage which had been fixed into the walls, near one of the
openings. "Both rascals would fly away directly, if they were not
closely locked up. And here is my old sweetheart 'Ba,'" and she dragged
out a reindeer by the horn; he wore a bright copper ring round his neck
and was tethered to the spot. "We are obliged to hold him tight too,
else he would run away from us also. I tickle his neck every evening
with my sharp knife, which frightens him very much." And the robber girl
drew a long knife from a chink in the wall and let it slide gently over
the reindeer's neck. The poor animal began to kick, and the little
robber girl laughed and pulled down Gerda into bed with her.

"Will you have that knife with you while you are asleep?" asked Gerda,
looking at it in great fright.

"I always sleep with the knife by me," said the robber girl. "No one