o the end of the world to find you."

But Gerda patted her cheeks and asked after the prince and princess.

"They are gone to foreign countries," said the robber girl.

"And the crow?" asked Gerda.

"Oh, the crow is dead," she replied. "His tame sweetheart is now a widow
and wears a bit of black worsted round her leg. She mourns very
pitifully, but it is all stuff. But now tell me how you managed to get
him back."

Then Gerda and Kay told her all about it.

"Snip, snap, snurre! it's all right at last," said the robber girl.

She took both their hands and promised that if ever she should pass
through the town, she would call and pay them a visit. And then she rode
away into the wide world.

But Gerda and Kay went hand in hand toward home, and as they advanced,
spring appeared more lovely with its green verdure and its beautiful
flowers. Very soon they recognized the large town where they lived, and
the tall steeples of the churches in which the sweet bells were ringing
a merry peal, as they entered it and found their way to their
grandmother's door.

They went upstairs into the little room, where all looked just as it
used to do. The old clock was going "Tick, tick," and the hands pointed
to the time of day, but as they passed through the door into the room
they perceived that they were both grown up and become a man and woman.
The roses out on the roof were in full bloom and peeped in at the
window, and there stood the little chairs on which they had sat when
children, and Kay and Gerda seated themselves each on their own chair
and held each other by the hand, while the cold, empty grandeur of the
Snow Queen's palace vanished from their memories like a painful dream.

The grandmother sat in God's bright sunshine, and she read aloud from
the Bible, "Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise
enter into the kingdom of God." And Kay and Gerda looked into each
other's eyes and all at once understood the words of the old song:

Roses bloom and fade away,
But we the Christ-child see alway.

And they both sat there, grown up, yet children at heart, and it was
summer--warm, beautiful summer.

[Illustration]

THE ROSES AND THE SPARROWS

IT really appeared as if something very important were going on by the
duck pond, but this was not the case.

A few minutes before, all the ducks had been resting on the water or
standing on their heads--for that they can do--and