all the rest, trembling, and whimpering under their breaths, followed.

It was not long before they reached the Snow Man's house, which was
really quite magnificent: a castle built of blocks of ice fitted
together like bricks, and with two splendid snow-lions keeping guard
at the entrance. The Snow Man's wife stood in the door, and the Snow
Children stood behind her and peeped around her skirts; they were
smiling from ear to ear. They had never seen any company before, and
they were so delighted that they did not know what to do.

[Illustration: THE SNOW MAN'S HOUSE.]

"We have some company, wife," shouted the Snow Man.

"Bring them right in," said his wife with a beaming face. She was very
handsome, with beautiful pink cheeks and blue eyes, and she wore a
trailing white robe, like a queen. She kissed the children all around,
and shivers crept down their backs, for it was like being kissed by an
icicle. "Kiss your company, my dears," she said to the Snow Children,
and they came bashfully forward and kissed Dame Penny's scholars with
these same chilly kisses.

"Now," said the Snow Man's wife, "come right in and sit down where it
is cool--you look very hot."

"Hot," when the poor scholars were quite stiff with cold! They looked
at one another in dismay, but did not dare say anything. They followed
the Snow Man's wife into her grand parlor.

"Come right over here by the north window where it is cooler," said