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‘‘To be sure,’ said he. ‘And there in the corner stood a
waterpail, where I used to swim my boats.’
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‘‘True; but first we went to school to learn somewhat,’
said she; ‘and then we were confirmed. We both cried;
but in the afternoon we went up the Round Tower, and
looked down on Copenhagen, and far, far away over the
water; then we went to Friedericksberg, where the King
and the Queen were sailing about in their splendid barges.’
‘‘But I had a different sort of sailing to that, later; and
that, too, for many a year; a long way off, on great
voyages.’
‘‘Yes, many a time have I wept for your sake,’ said she.
‘I thought you were dead and gone, and lying down in the
deep waters. Many a night have I got up to see if the wind
had not changed: and changed it had, sure enough; but
you never came. I remember so well one day, when the
rain was pouring down in torrents, the scavengers were

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down just over the wood, as we lay in our nest. She blew
upon us young ones; and all died except we two. Coo!
Coo!’
‘What is that you say up there?’ cried little Gerda.
‘Where did the Snow Queen go to? Do you know
anything about it?’
‘She is no doubt gone to Lapland; for there is always
snow and ice there. Only ask the Reindeer, who is
tethered there.’
‘Ice and snow is there! There it is, glorious and
beautiful!’ said the Reindeer. ‘One can spring about in the
large shining valleys! The Snow Queen has her summertent
there; but her fixed abode is high up towards the
North Pole, on the Island called Spitzbergen.’
‘Oh, Kay! Poor little Kay!’ sighed Gerda.
‘Do you choose to be quiet?’ said the robber maiden.
‘If you don’t, I shall make you.’

THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES(Page 6)

She now led Gerda into the flower-garden. Oh, what
odour and what loveliness was there! Every flower that
one could think of, and of every season, stood there in
fullest bloom; no picture-book could be gayer or more
beautiful. Gerda jumped for joy, and played till the sun set
behind the tall cherry-tree; she then had a pretty bed, with
a red silken coverlet filled with blue violets. She fell asleep,
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and had as pleasant dreams as ever a queen on her
wedding-day.
The next morning she went to play with the flowers in
the warm sunshine, and thus passed away a day. Gerda
knew every flower; and, numerous as they were, it still
seemed to Gerda that one was wanting, though she did
not know which. One day while she was looking at the
hat of the old woman painted with flowers, the most
beautiful of them all seemed to her to be a rose. The old
woman had forgotten to take it from her hat when she
made the others vanish in the earth. But so it is when
one’s thoughts are not collected. ‘What!’ said Gerda. ‘Are
there no roses here?’ and she ran about amongst the

THE EMPEROR’S NEW CLOTHES(Page 5)

‘It is dreadfully cold,’ said the Mouse. ‘But for that, it
would be delightful here, old Fir, wouldn’t it?’
‘I am by no means old,’ said the Fir Tree. ‘There’s
many a one considerably older than I am.’
‘Where do you come from,’ asked the Mice; ‘and what
can you do?’ They were so extremely curious. ‘Tell us
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about the most beautiful spot on the earth. Have you
never been there? Were you never in the larder, where
cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from above;
where one dances about on tallow candles: that place
where one enters lean, and comes out again fat and
portly?’
‘I know no such place,’ said the Tree. ‘But I know the
wood, where the sun shines and where the little birds
sing.’ And then he told all about his youth; and the little
Mice had never heard the like before; and they listened
and said,