over hedges and ditches. The boy was frightened, and tried to say a prayer,
but he could remember nothing but the multiplication table.
The snow-flakes became larger and larger, till they appeared like great
white chickens. All at once they sprang on one side, the great sledge
stopped, and the person who had driven it rose up. The fur and the cap,
which were made entirely of snow, fell off, and he saw a lady, tall and
white, it was the Snow Queen.
“We have driven well,” said she, “but why do you tremble? here, creep
into my warm fur.” Then she seated him beside her in the sledge, and as she
wrapped the fur round him he felt as if he were sinking into a snow drift.
“Are you still cold,” she asked, as she kissed him on the forehead. The
kiss was colder than ice; it went quite through to his heart, which was
already almost a lump of ice; he felt as if he were going to die, but only for
a moment; he soon seemed quite well again, and did not notice the cold
around him.
“My sledge! don’t forget my sledge,” was his first thought, and then he
looked and saw that it was bound fast to one of the white chickens, which
flew behind him with the sledge at its back. The Snow Queen kissed little
Kay again, and by this time he had forgotten little Gerda, his grandmother,
and all at home.
“Now you must have no more kisses,” she said, “or I should kiss you to
death.”
Kay looked at her, and saw that she was so beautiful, he could not
imagine a more lovely and intelligent face; she did not now seem to be
made of ice, as when he had seen her through his window, and she had
nodded to him. In his eyes she was perfect, and she did not feel at all afraid.
He told her he could do mental arithmetic, as far as fractions, and that he
knew the number of square miles and the number of inhabitants in the
country. And she always smiled so that he thought he did not know enough
yet, and she looked round the vast expanse as she flew higher and higher
with him upon a black cloud, while the storm blew and howled as if it were
