fir-trees, which were powdered with snow.

The Ice-Maiden rode on the blustering wind over the deepest valleys.
The snow covering lay over all Bex; Rudy stayed in doors more than was
his wont, and sat with Babette. The wedding was to take place in the
summer; their friends talked so much of it that it often made their
ears burn. All was sunshine with them, and the loveliest alpine rose
was Babette, the sprightly, laughing Babette, who was as charming as
the early spring; the spring that makes the birds sing, that will
bring the summer time and the wedding day.

"How can they sit there and hang over each other," exclaimed the
parlour-cat, "I am really tired of their eternal mewing!"




IX.

THE ICE-MAIDEN.


The early spring time had unfolded the green leaves of the walnut and
chestnut trees; they were remarkably luxuriant from the bridge of St.
Maurice to the banks of the lake of Geneva.

The Rhone, which rushes forth from its source, has under the green
glacier the palace of the Ice-Maiden. She is carried by it and the
sharp wind to the elevated snow-fields, where she extends herself on
her damp cushions in the brilliant sunshine. There she sits and gazes,