The Reindeer sprang up high for joy.  The robber girl lifted little Gerda on its back, and had the forethought to tie her fast, and even to give her her own little cushion as a saddle.

“There are your fur boots for you,” she said, “for it’s growing cold; but I shall keep the muff, for that’s so very pretty.  Still, you shall not be cold, for all that; here’s my mother’s big muffles—­they’ll just reach up to your elbows.  Now you look just like my ugly mother.”

And Gerda wept for joy.

“I can’t bear to see you whimper,” said the little robber girl.  “No, you just ought to look very glad.  And here are two loaves and a ham for you; now you won’t be hungry.”

These were tied on the Reindeer’s back.  The little robber girl opened the door, coaxed in all the big dogs, and then cut the rope with her sharp knife, and said to the Reindeer: 

“Now run, but take good care of the little girl.”

And Gerda stretched out her hands with the big muffles toward the little robber girl, and said, “Farewell.”

And the Reindeer ran over stock and stone, away through the great forest, over marshes and steppes, as fast as it could go.  The wolves howled, and the ravens croaked.  “Hiss! hiss!” sounded through the air.  It seemed as if the sky were flashing fire.

“Those are my old Northern Lights,” said the Reindeer.  “Look how they glow!” And then it ran on faster than ever, day and night.

THE SIXTH STORY

THE LAPLAND WOMAN AND THE FINLAND WOMAN

At a little hut they stopped.  It was very humble; the roof sloped down almost to the ground, and the door was so low that the family had to creep on their stomachs when they wanted to go in or out.  No one was in the house but an old Lapland woman, cooking fish by the light of a train-oil lamp; and the Reindeer told Gerda’s whole history, but it related its own first, for this seemed to the Reindeer the more important of the two.  Gerda was so exhausted by the cold that she could not speak.

“Oh, you poor things,” said the Lapland woman; “you’ve a long way to run yet!  You must go more than a hundred miles into Finmark, for the Snow Queen is there, staying in the country, and burning Bengal Lights every evening.  I’ll write a few words on a dried cod, for I have no paper, and I’ll give you that as a letter to the Finland woman; she can give you better information than I.”

And when Gerda had been warmed and refreshed with food and drink, the Lapland woman wrote a few words on a dried codfish, and telling Gerda to take care of these, tied her again on the Reindeer, and the Reindeer sprang away.  Flash! flash!  The whole night long the most beautiful blue Northern Lights were burning.

And then they got to Finmark, and knocked at the chimney of the Finland woman; for she had not even a hut.