The Snow Queen

STORY 1

In one big town lived two poor children. Their names were Kay and Gerda. They had a large garden full of roses. They were not brother and sister but they loved each other very much.

'Can the Snow Queen come in here?' asked the girl one day.

'Only let her try,' said the boy.

Tll put her on the stove and she'll melt?

One evening when little Kay was at home, he climbed on a chair and looked out the window. One of the snowflakes was larger than the others and it became larger and larger till at last it became the figure of a woman dressed in a long white dress. Her dress was made of a million little flakes. She was beautiful but made of ice, and her eyes were made of ice, too, and were shining like bright stars.

She nodded toward the window and waved her hand. The little boy got afraid and ran from the window.

Then spring came and the children were again in the garden. Kay and Gerda held each other by the hand and kissed the roses. One day Kay and Gerda sat looking at the pictures of animals and birds in a big book. Suddenly Kay cried out, 'Oh, there is something in my heart! I feel such a pain!' and soon after that he said, "There is something in my eye. Gerda put her arm round his neck and looked into his eye but she did not see any-thing. 'I think it is gone,' he said.

But it was not gone - it was one of the bits of the magic mirror which made everything beautiful and kind seem ugly and evil. Poor little Kay also received a small piece of that mirror in his heart, which very quickly became a piece of ice and made his heart cold and evil.

'Why are you crying?' said he.

'It makes your face ugly. Oh, see!' he cried suddenly. "There roses are ugly, and he pulled off some roses. When Kay saw that Gerda got frightened, he laughed and ran away from her. After that time his games became evil and even cruel.

It was the bit of glass in his eye and a piece of ice in his heart that made him like this. He was even cruel to Gerda who loved him with all her heart.

One day when he was playing in a big square, he saw a very large sledge. It was white and in it sat a woman in white fur coat and a white cap. The sledge drove round the square and when it went away, Kay's little sledge followed it.