refer
to go in.'

"The rooms were blazing with light; councilors and ambassadors walked
about with bare feet, carrying golden vessels; it was enough to make any
one feel serious. His boots creaked loudly as he walked, and yet he was
not at all uneasy."

"It must be Kay," said Gerda; "I know he had new boots on. I heard them
creak in grandmother's room."

"They really did creak," said the crow, "yet he went boldly up to the
princess herself, who was sitting on a pearl as large as a spinning
wheel. And all the ladies of the court were present with their maids and
all the cavaliers with their servants, and each of the maids had another
maid to wait upon her, and the cavaliers' servants had their own
servants as well as each a page. They all stood in circles round the
princess, and the nearer they stood to the door the prouder they looked.
The servants' pages, who always wore slippers, could hardly be looked
at, they held themselves up so proudly by the door."

"It must be quite awful," said little Gerda; "but did Kay win the
princess?"

"If I had not been a crow," said he, "I would have married her myself,
although I am engaged. He spoke as well as I do when I speak the crows'
language. I heard this from my tame sweetheart. He was quite free and
agreeable and said he had not come to woo the princess, but to hear her
wisdom. And he was as pleased with her as she was with him."

"Oh, certainly that was Kay," said Gerda; "he was so clever; he could
work mental arithmetic and fractions. Oh, will you take me to the
palace?"

"It is very easy to ask that," replied the crow, "but how are we to
manage it? However, I will speak about it to my tame sweetheart and ask
her advice, for, I must tell you, it will be very difficult to gain
permission for a little girl like you to enter the palace."

"Oh, yes, but I shall gain permission easily," said Gerda, "for when Kay
hears that I am here he will come out and fetch me in immediately."

"Wait for me here by the palings," said the crow, wagging his head as he
flew away.

It was late in the evening before the crow returned. "Caw, caw!" he
said; "she sends you greeting, and here is a little roll which she took
from the kitchen for you. There is plenty of bread there, and she thinks
you must be hungry. It is not possible for you to enter the palace by
the front entrance. The guards in silver uniform and the servants in
gold livery would not allow it. But do not cry; we will man