“It would be impossible to describe all she went through during the seven days which passed before she reached the sea of glass.  She saw some strange and wonderful sights, for in those days the world was very different from what it is now.  She was often tired and hungry, thankful for a cup of milk or crust of bread from those she happened to meet on the way.  But her courage never failed her, and at last, on the morning of the eighth day, she saw shining before her in the sunlight the great silent sea of glass of which she had been told.

“It would have been hopeless to attempt to cross it without fairy aid, for it was polished more brightly than any mirror, and so hard that no young Princess’s bones could have borne a fall on its cruel surface.  But with the magic shoes there was less than no difficulty, for no sooner had the Princess slipped her feet into them than they turned into skates, and very wonderful skates, for they possessed the power of enabling their wearer to glide along with the greatest swiftness.  The Princess had never skated in her life, and she was delighted.

“‘Next to flying,’ she said to herself, ‘nothing could be pleasanter,’ and she was almost sorry when her skim across the sea of glass was over, and she found herself at the foot of the hill of ice.

“She looked upwards with something like despair.  It was a terrible ascent to attempt, for the mountain was all but straight, so steep were its sides of hard, clear, sparkling ice.  The Princess looked at her feet, the magic shoes had already disappeared; she looked at the staff she still held in her hand—­how could a stick help her up such a mountain? and half impatiently, half hopelessly, she threw it from her.  Instantly it stretched itself out, growing wider and wider, the notches in the wood expanding, till it had taken the shape of a roughly-made ladder of irregular steps, hooked on to the ice by the sharp spike at its end, and the Princess, ashamed of her discouragement, mounted up the steps without difficulty, and as she reached the top one, of itself the ladder pushed up before her, so that she could mount straight up without hesitation.

“She stepped forward bravely.  It took a long time, even though she had the fairy aid, and by the time she reached the top of the hill night had fallen, and but for the light of the stars, she would not have known where to step.  A long plain stretched before her—­no trees or bushes even broke the wide expanse.  There was no shelter of any kind, and the Princess found herself obliged to walk on and on, for the wind was very cold, and she dared not let herself rest.  This night and the next day were the hardest part of all the journey, and seemed even more so, because the Princess had hoped that the sea of glass and the hill of ice were to be the worst of her difficulties.  More than once she was tempted to crack the nut, the last of the old woman’s presents, but she refrained, saying