seated herself, and said: "Chair of my grandmother, take me
the way she went".

At once the chair gave a creak, and began to move out of the cottage,
and into the forest, the very way Dame Frostyface had taken, where it
rolled along at the rate of a coach and six. Snowflower was amazed at
this way of travelling, but the chair never stopped nor stayed the whole
summer day, till as the sun was setting they came upon an open space,
where a hundred men were cutting down the tall trees with their axes, a
hundred more were splitting them for firewood, and twenty men, with
horses and wagons, were carrying the wood away.

"Oh! chair of my grandmother, stop!" said Snowflower, for she was tired,
and also wished to know what this might mean. The chair at once stood
still, and Snowflower, seeing an old woodcutter, who looked kind,
stepped up to him and said: "Good father, tell me why you cut all this
wood?"

"Where do you live," replied the man, "that you have not heard of the
great feast which King Winwealth means to give on the birthday of his
only daughter, Princess Greedalind? It will last for seven days.
Everybody will be feasted, and this wood is to roast the oxen and the
sheep, the geese and the turkeys, amongst whom there is great sorrow
throughout the land."

When Snowflower heard that, she could not help wishing to see, and
perhaps to share in, such a noble feast, after living so long on barley
cakes. So, seating herself, she said: "Chair of my grandmother, take me
quickly to the palace of King Winwealth."

The words were hardly spoken, when off the chair started through the
trees and out of the forest, to the great surprise of the woodcutters,
who, never having seen such a sight before, threw down their axes, left
their wagons, and went after Snowflower to the gates of a great and
splendid city, having strong walls and high towers, and standing in the
midst of a wide plain covered with cornfields, fruit gardens, and
villages.

It was the richest city in all the land. People from every part of the
land came there to buy and sell, and there was a saying that they had
only to live seven years in it to make their fortunes. Rich as they
were, however, Snowflower had never seen so many discontented, greedy
faces as looked out from the great shops, grand houses, and fine
coaches, when her chair rattled along the streets. Indeed, the people of
that city were not much thought of for either good nature or honesty.
But it h