“My betrothed has spoken to me very favorably of you, my little lady,” said the tame Crow.  “Your history, as it may be called, is very moving.  Will you take the lamp? then I will precede you.  We will go the straight way, and then we shall meet nobody.”

“I feel as if some one were coming after us,” said Gerda, as something rushed by her.  It seemed like a shadow on the wall; horses with flying manes and thin legs, hunters, and ladies and gentlemen on horseback.

“These are only dreams,” said the Crow; “they are coming to carry the high masters’ thoughts out hunting.  That’s all the better, for you may look at them the more closely, in bed.  But I hope, when you are taken into favor and get promotion, you will show a grateful heart.”

“Of that we may be sure!” observed the Crow from the wood.

Now they came into the first hall; it was hung with rose-colored satin, and artificial flowers were worked on the walls.  And here the dreams again came flitting by them, but they moved so quickly that Gerda could not see the high-born lords and ladies.  Each hall was more splendid than the last; yes, one could almost become bewildered!  Now they were in the bedchamber.  Here the ceiling was like a great palm tree with leaves of glass, of costly glass, and in the middle of the floor two beds hung on a thick stalk of gold, and each of them looked like a lily.  One of them was white, and in that lay the princess; the other was red, and in that Gerda was to seek little Kay.  She bent one of the red leaves aside, and then she saw a little brown neck.  Oh, that was Kay!  She called out his name quite loud, and held the lamp toward him.  The dreams rushed into the room again on horseback—­he awoke, turned his head, and—­it was not little Kay!

The prince was only like him in the neck, but he was young and good-looking; and the princess looked up, blinking, from the white lily, and asked who was there.  Then little Gerda wept, and told her history, and all that the Crows had done for her.

“You poor child!” said the prince and princess.

And they praised the Crows, and said that they were not angry with them at all, but the Crows were not to do it again.  However, they should be rewarded.

“Will you fly out free,” asked the princess, “or will you have fixed positions as court Crows, with the right to everything that is left in the kitchen?”

And the two Crows bowed, and begged for fixed positions, for they thought of their old age, and said, “It is so good to have some provisions for one’s old days,” as they called them.

And the prince got up out of his bed, and let Gerda sleep in it, and he could not do more than that.  She folded her little hands and thought, “How good men and animals are!” and then she shut her eyes and went quietly to sleep.  All the dreams came flying in again, looking like angels, and they drew a little sledge, on which Kay sat nodding; but all this was only a dream, and therefore it was gone again as soon as she awoke.