s of patterns, trying to
make something out of them; just as when we at home have little tablets
of wood, with which we make patterns, and call them a 'Chinese puzzle.'

Kay's patterns were most ingenious, because they were the 'Ice Puzzles
of Reason.' In his eyes they were first-rate and of the greatest
importance: this was because of the grain of glass still in his eye. He
made many patterns forming words, but he never could find out the right
way to place them for one particular word, a word he was most anxious to
make. It was 'Eternity.' The Snow Queen had said to him that if he could
find out this word he should be his own master, and she would give him
the whole world and a new pair of skates. But he could not discover it.

'Now I am going to fly away to the warm countries,' said the Snow Queen.
'I want to go and peep into the black caldrons!' She meant the volcanoes
Etna and Vesuvius by this. 'I must whiten them a little; it does them
good, and the lemons and the grapes too!' And away she flew.

Kay sat quite alone in all those many miles of empty ice halls. He
looked at his bits of ice, and thought and thought, till something gave
way within him. He sat so stiff and immovable that one might have
thought he was frozen to death.

Then it was that little Gerda walked into the Palace, through the great
gates in a biting wind. She said her evening prayer, and the wind
dropped as if lulled to sleep, and she walked on into the big empty
hall. She saw Kay, and knew him at once; she flung her arms round his
neck, held him fast, and cried, 'Kay, little Kay, have I found you at
last?'

But he sat still, rigid and cold.

Then little Gerda shed hot tears; they fell upon his breast and
penetrated to his heart. Here they thawed the lump of ice, and melted
the little bit of the mirror which was in it. He looked at her, and she
sang:

'Where roses deck the flowery vale,
There, Infant Jesus, we thee hail!'

Then Kay burst into tears; he cried so much that the grain of glass
was washed out of his eye. He knew her, and shouted with joy, 'Gerda,
dear little Gerda! where have you been for such a long time? And where
have I been?' He looked round and said, 'How cold it is here; how empty
and vast!' He kept tight hold of Gerda, who laughed and cried for joy.
Their happiness was so heavenly that even the bits of ice danced for joy
around them; and when they settled down, there they lay! just in the
very position the Sn