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heart. It will soon become like ice. It did not hurt any longer, but there it was.
"What are you crying for?" asked he. "You look so ugly! There's nothing the matter with
me. Ah," said he at once, "that rose is cankered! And look, this one is quite crooked! After
all, these roses are very ugly! They are just like the box they are planted in!" And then he
gave the box a good kick with his foot, and pulled both the roses up.
"What are you doing?" cried the little girl; and as he perceived her fright, he pulled up
another rose, got in at the window, and hastened off from dear little Gerda.
Afterwards, when she brought her picture-book, he asked, "What horrid beasts have you
there?" And if his grandmother told them stories, he always interrupted her; besides, if he
could manage it, he would get behind her, put on her spectacles, and imitate her way of
speaking; he copied all her ways, and then everybody laughed at him. He was soon able to
imitate the gait and manner of everyone in the street. Everything that was peculiar and
displeasing in them--that Kay knew how to imitate: and at such times all the people said,
"The boy is certainly very clever!" But it was the glass he had got in his eye; the glass that
was sticking in his heart, which made him tease even little Gerda, whose whole soul was
devoted to him.
His games now were quite different to what they had formerly been, they were so very
knowing. One winter's day, when the flakes of snow were flying about, he spread the skirts
of his blue coat, and caught the snow as it fell.
"Look through this glass, Gerda," said he. And every flake seemed larger, and appeared
like a magnificent flower, or beautiful star; it was splendid to look at!
"Look, how clever!" said Kay. "That's much more interesting than real flowers! They are as
exact as possible; there i not a fault in them, if they did not melt!"
It was not long after this, that Kay came one day with large gloves on, and his little sledge
at his back, and bawled right into Gerda's ears, "I have permission to go out into the square
where the others are playing"; and off he was in a moment.
There, in the market-place, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie their sledges to the
carts as they passed by, and so they were pulled along, and got a good ride. It was so
capital! Just as they were in the very height of their amusement, a large sledge passed by: it
was painted quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white mantle
of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head. The sledge drove round the square twice,
and Kay tied on his sledge as quickly as he could, and off he drove with it. On they went
quicker and quicker into the next street; and the person who drove turned round to Kay, and
nodded to him in a friendly manner, just as if they knew each other. Every time he was
going to untie his sledge, the person nodded to him, and then Kay sat quiet; and so on they
went till they came outside the gates of the town. Then the snow began to fall so thickly
that the little boy could not see an arm's length before him, but still on he went: when
suddenly he let go the string he held in his hand in order to get loose from the sledge, but it
was of no use; still the little vehicle rushed on with the quickness of the wind. He then cried
as loud as he could, but no one beard him; the snow drifted and the sledge flew on, and
sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges and ditches. He was quite
frightened, and he tried to repeat the Lord's Prayer; but all he could do, he was only able to
remember the multiplication table.
The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just like great white fowls.
Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge stopped, and the person who drove rose
up. It was a lady; her cloak and cap were of snow. She was tall and of slender figure, and of
a dazzling whiteness. It was the Snow Queen.
"We have travelled fast," said she; "but it is freezingly cold. Come under my bearskin."
And she put him in the sledge beside her, wrapped the fur round him, and he felt as though
he were sinking in a snow-wreath.
"Are you still cold?" asked she; and then she kissed his forehead. Ah! it was colder than
ice; it penetrated to his very heart, which was already almost a frozen lump; it seemed to
him as if he were about to die--but a moment more and it was quite congenial to him, and
he did not remark the cold that was around him.
"My sledge! Do not forget my sledge!" It was the first thing he thought of. It was there tied
to one of the white chickens, who flew along with it on his back behind the large sledge.
The Snow Queen kissed Kay once more, and then he forgot little Gerda, grandmother, and
all whom he had left at his home.
"Now you will have no more kisses," said she, "or else I should kiss you to death!"
Kay looked at her. She was very beautiful; a more clever, or a more lovely countenance he
could not fancy to himself; and she no longer appeared of ice as before, when she sat
outside the window, and beckoned to him; in his eyes she was perfect, he did not fear her at
all, and told her that he could calculate in his head and with fractions, even; that he knew
the number of square miles there were in the different countries, and how many inhabitants
they contained; and she smiled while he spoke. It then seemed to him as if what he knew
was not enough, and he looked upwards in the large huge empty space above him, and on
she flew with him; flew high over,the black clouds, while the storm moaned and whistled
as though it were singing some old tune. On they flew over woods and lakes, over seas, and
many lands; and beneath them the chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves howled, the snow
crackled; above them flew large screaming crows, but higher up appeared the moon, quite
large and bright; and it was on it that Kay gazed during the long long winter's night; while
by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.
THIRD STORY. Of the Flower-Garden At the Old Woman's Who Understood Witchcraft
But what became of little Gerda when Kay did not return? Where could he be? Nobody [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]