Little Kay was quite blue, yes nearly black with cold; but he did not observe it, for she had kissed away all feeling of cold from his body, and his heart was a lump of ice.  He was dragging along some pointed flat pieces of ice, which he laid together in all possible ways, for he wanted to make something with them; just as we have little flat pieces of wood to make geometrical figures with, called the Chinese Puzzle.  Kay made all sorts of figures, the most complicated, for it was an ice-puzzle for the understanding.  In his eyes the figures were extraordinarily beautiful, and of the utmost importance; for the bit of glass which was in his eye caused this.  He found whole figures which represented a written word; but he never could manage to represent just the word he wanted—­that word was “eternity”; and the Snow Queen had said, “If you can discover that figure, you shall be your own master, and I will make you a present of the whole world and a pair of new skates.”  But he could not find it out.

“I am going now to warm lands,” said the Snow Queen.  “I must have a look down into the black caldrons.”  It was the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna that she meant.  “I will just give them a coating of white, for that is as it ought to be; besides, it is good for the oranges and the grapes.”  And then away she flew, and Kay sat quite alone in the empty halls of ice that were miles long, and looked at the blocks of ice, and thought and thought till his skull was almost cracked.  There he sat quite benumbed and motionless; one would have imagined he was frozen to death.

Suddenly little Gerda stepped through the great portal into the palace.  The gate was formed of cutting winds; but Gerda repeated her evening prayer, and the winds were laid as though they slept; and the little maiden entered the vast, empty, cold halls.  There she beheld Kay:  she recognised him, flew to embrace him, and cried out, her arms firmly holding him the while, “Kay, sweet little Kay!  Have I then found you at last?”

But he sat quite still, benumbed and cold.  Then little Gerda shed burning tears; and they fell on his bosom, they penetrated to his heart, they thawed the lumps of ice, and consumed the splinters of the looking-glass; he looked at her, and she sang the hymn: 

“The rose in the valley is blooming so sweet,
And angels descend there the children to greet.”

Hereupon Kay burst into tears; he wept so much that the splinter rolled out of his eye, and he recognised her, and shouted, “Gerda, sweet little Gerda!  Where have you been so long?  And where have I been?” He looked round him.  “How cold it is here!” said he.  “How empty and cold!” And he held fast by Gerda, who laughed and wept for joy.  It was so beautiful, that even the blocks of ice danced about for joy; and when they were tired and laid themselves down, they formed exactly the letters which the Snow Queen had told him to find out; so now he was his own master, and he would have the whole world and a pair of new skates into the bargain.