Gerda, without shoes or gloves in the middle of the bitter cold
of Finland.

She ran on as fast as she could. A regiment of gigantic
snowflakes came against her, but they melted when they touched
her, and she went on with fresh courage.

And now we must see what Kay was doing. He was not thinking of
Gerda, and never dreamt that she was standing outside the palace.

The walls of the palace were built of driven snow, and the doors
and windows of piercing
winds. There were more than a hundred halls in it all of frozen
snow. The largest was several miles long; the bright Northern
lights lit them up, and very large and empty and cold and
glittering they were! In the middle of the great hall was a
frozen lake which had cracked in a thousand pieces; each piece
was exactly like the other. Here the Snow-queen used to sit when
she was at ahome.

Little Kay was almost blue and black with cold, but he did not
feel it, for she had kissed away his feelings and his heart was a
lump of ice.

He was pulling about some sharp, flat pieces of ice, and trying
to fit one into the other. He thought each was most beautiful,
but that was because of the splinter of glass in his eye. He
fitted them into a great many shapes, but he wanted to make them
spell the word 'Love.' The Snow-queen had said, 'If you can
spell out that word you shalt be your own master. I will give