ble to move either
of them, and the girl remembered that the queen always waved her
magic wand to accomplish anything. Princess Clia's couch was behind
that of Trot, so the child could not see her, and Cap'n Bill was in
his own room, probably frozen fast in the ice as the others were.

The terrible Zog has surely been very clever in this last attempt to
destroy them. Trot thought it all over, and she decided that
inasmuch as the queen was unable to wave her fairy wand, she could
do nothing to release herself or her friends.

But in this the girl was mistaken. The fairy mermaid was even now at
work trying to save them, and in a few minutes Trot was astonished
and delighted to see the queen rise from her couch. She could not go
far from it at first, but the ice was melting rapidly all around her
so that gradually Aquareine approached the place where the child
lay. Trot could hear the mermaid's voice sounding through the ice as
if from afar off, but it grew more distinct until she could make out
that the queen was saying, "Courage, friends! Do not despair, for
soon you will be free."

Before very long the ice between Trot and the queen had melted away
entirely, and with a cry of joy the little girl flopped her pink
tail and swam to the side of her deliverer.

"Are you very cold?" asked Aquareine.

"N-not v-v-very!" replied Trot, but her teeth chattered and she was
still shivering.

"The water will be warm in a few minutes," said the Queen. "But now
I must melt the rest of the ice and liberate Clia."

This she did in an astonishingly brief time, and the pretty
princess, being herself a fairy, had not been at all affected by the
cold surrounding her.

They now swam to the door of Cap'n Bill's room and found the Peony
Chamber a solid block of ice. The queen worked her magic power as
hard as she could, and the ice flowed and melted quickly before her
fairy wand. Yet when they reached the old sailor, he was almost
frozen stiff, and Trot and Clia had to rub his hands and nose and
ears very briskly to warm him up and bring him back to life.

Cap'n Bill was pretty tough, and he came around, in time, and opened
his eyes and sneezed and asked if the blizzard was over. So the
queen waved her wand over his head a few times to restore him to his
natural condition of warmth, and soon the old sailor became quite
comfortable and was able to understand all about the strange
adventure from which he had so marvelously escaped.