or to belong to the household of the
princess--so, pray, let me hear no more of making acquaintances among
the vulgar cats of the village; you will be a disgrace to the court!'

Friskarina shrugged her shoulders, and replied, in rather an
under-tone, 'that she really did not see anything _disgraceful_ in
being sorry for the unfortunate----' to which Glumdalkin made no
answer. She seemed to be seized with a violent fit of cleanliness, and
began washing and biting her right paw with extraordinary vehemence.

Just then, the entrance of Grandmagnificolowsky, and three or four
more of the pages, with the princess's supper, put an end to the
conversation. A fine gold dish, containing several dainty morsels,
which the princess had carved with her own royal hands, was put down
upon the velvet cushion, and Glumdalkin did them full justice.

When supper was over, two of the maids of honor carried the two cats
to their beds, where we will leave them for the night, in pretty
little baskets lined with yellow satin, and made so delightfully soft
and warm, that it almost made one go to sleep only to look at them.
Nevertheless, Friskarina lay awake a whole quarter of an hour,
turning over a plan in her little head, that she meant to try and
bring to pass the next day, if possible.

Glumdalkin was fast asleep in a minute. What was the princess doing?
She was lying in her splendid bed, thinking and watching the
fire-light dancing upon the spangles of her curtains, for her bed was
so beautiful--so very beautiful! It was made all of silver, in the
shape of a nautilus shell; and the curtains were of pale blue satin,
embroidered with silver flowers: you never saw such a lovely bed as it
was! And the longer the princess watched the light flashing so merrily
upon all the fine things in the room, the more she thought; and the
more she thought, the more unhappy she grew, but what she thought
about I can't tell you; perhaps we shall guess by and bye: I dare say
she dropped asleep at last.

During the night there was a heavy fall of snow. When the princess
came down to breakfast, the grass was covered with a sheet of pure
white--the trees quivered beneath the snow that covered their
boughs--the shrubs in the garden looked like a fairy-wood of frosted
silver glittering in the cold, bright sun--and far, far away, many
miles distant, rose high mountains, white and dreary, with pine
forests nodding on their summits. It was very--very cold.

Now