from Gerd she drove into a dark forest in which the robbers lived; the carriage burned like a fever, it cut the eyes of the robbers, and they simply could not bear it.

Gold! Gold! they shouted, seizing the horses by the bridle, killed the little postilions, the coachman and the servants, and pulled Gerda out of the carriage.

Look how nice, fat! Nuts fed! - said the old robber woman with a long stiff beard and shaggy, hanging eyebrows. - Fatty, what is your lamb! Well, what will it taste like?

And she pulled out a sharp, shining knife. Horrible!

Ay! she suddenly cried out: she was bitten on the ear by her own daughter, who was sitting behind her and was so unbridled and self-willed that it was simply a pleasure. - Oh, you mean girl! - screamed the mother, but did not have time to kill Gerda.

She will play with me,” said the little robber. “She will give me her muff, her pretty dress, and sleep with me in my bed.

And the girl again bit her mother so that she jumped and spun on the spot. The robbers laughed.

Look how he dances with his girl!

I want a carriage! - the little robber screamed and insisted on her own - she was terribly spoiled and stubborn.

They got into the carriage with Gerda and rushed over the stumps and bumps into the thicket of the forest.

The little robber was as tall as Gerdu, but stronger, broader in the shoulders and much darker. Her eyes were completely black, but somehow sad. She hugged Gerda and said:

They won't kill you until I get angry with you. Are you a princess?

No, - the girl answered and told what she had to experience and how she loves Kai.

The little robber looked at her seriously, nodded slightly, and said:

They won't kill you even if I get angry with you - I'd rather kill you myself!

And she wiped away Gerda's tears, and then hid both her hands in her pretty soft warm muff.

Here the carriage stopped: they drove into the courtyard of the robber's castle.

He was covered in huge cracks; crows and crows flew out of them. Huge bulldogs jumped out from somewhere, it seemed that each of them could not swallow a person, but they only jumped high and did not even bark - it was forbidden. A fire was burning in the middle of a huge hall with dilapidated, soot-covered walls and a stone floor. The smoke rose to the ceiling and had to find its own way out. Over the fire, soup was boiling in a huge cauldron, and hares and rabbits were roasting on skewers.

You will sleep with me right here, near my little menagerie, - said the little robber to Gerda.

The girls were fed and watered, and they went to their corner, where straw was laid out, covered with carpets. More than a hundred pigeons sat on poles higher up. They all seemed to be asleep, but when the girls approached, they stirred slightly.

All mine! - said the little robber girl, grabbed one pigeon by the legs and shook it so that it beat its wings. - Kiss him! she shouted and poked the dove in Gerda's face. “And here the forest rogues are sitting,” she continued, pointing to two pigeons sitting in a small recess in the wall, behind a wooden lattice. “These two are woodland crooks. They must be kept locked up, otherwise they will fly away quickly! And here is my dear old man! - And the girl pulled the horns of a reindeer tied to the wall in a shiny copper collar. - He, too, must be kept on a leash, otherwise he will run away! Every evening I tickle him under the neck with my sharp knife - he's scared to death of it.

With these words, the little robber pulled out a long knife from a crevice in the wall and ran it along the deer's neck. The poor animal bucked, and the girl laughed and dragged Gerda to the bed.

Are you sleeping with a knife? Gerda asked her.

Always! - answered the little robber. - You never know what can happen! Well, tell me again about Kai and how you set out to wander the wide world.

Gerda told. Caged wood pigeons cooed softly; the other pigeons were already asleep. The little robber wrapped one arm around Gerda's neck - she had a knife in the other - and began to snore, but Gerda could not close her eyes, not knowing whether they would kill her or let her live. Suddenly the wood pigeons cooed:

Kurr! Kurr! We saw Kai! A white hen carried his sled on her back, and he sat in the Snow Queen's sleigh. They flew over the forest when we chicks were still in the nest. She breathed on us, and everyone died except for the two of us. Kurr! Kurr!

What. you speak! exclaimed Gerda. Where did the Snow Queen go? Do you know?

Probably to Lapland - after all, there is eternal snow and ice. Ask the reindeer what is leashed here.

Yes, there is eternal snow and ice. Wonder how good! - said the reindeer. - There you jump at will on the huge sparkling plains. The Snow Queen's summer tent is set up there, and her permanent palaces are at the North Pole, on the island of Svalbard.

Oh Kai, my dear Kai! Gerda sighed.

Lie still, said the little robber. - I'll stab you with a knife!

In the morning Gerda told her what she had heard from wood pigeons. The little robber girl looked seriously at Gerda, nodded her head and said:

Well, so be it!.. Do you know where Lapland is? she then asked the reindeer.

Who knows if not me! - answered the deer, and his eyes sparkled. - There I was born and raised, there I jumped on the snowy plains.

So listen, - said the little robber girl to Gerda. - You see, all of us are gone, there is only one mother at home;

after a while she will take a sip from a large bottle and take a nap, then I will do something for you.

And so the old woman took a sip from her bottle and began to snore, and the little robber went up to the reindeer and said:

We could still make fun of you for a long time! You're too hilarious to be tickled with a sharp knife. Well, so be it! I will untie you and set you free. You can run to your Lapland, but in return you must take this girl to the Snow Queen's palace - there is her named brother. Surely you heard what she said? She spoke loudly, and you always have ears on top of your head.

The reindeer jumped for joy. And the little robber put Gerda on him, tied her tightly for fidelity, and even slipped a soft pillow under her to make it more comfortable for her to sit.

So be it, - she said then, - take back your fur boots - it will be cold! And I'll leave the clutch for myself, it hurts good. But I won’t let you freeze: here are my mother’s huge mittens, they will reach you to the very elbows. Put your hands in them! Well, now you have hands like my ugly mother.

Gerda wept for joy.

I can't stand it when they whine! - said the little robber. Now you should be happy. Here's two more loaves and a ham for you so you don't have to go hungry.

Both were tied to a deer. Then the little robber opened the door, lured the dogs into the house, cut the rope with which the deer was tied with her sharp knife, and said to him:

Well, live! Yes, look at the girl. Gerda held out both hands to the little robber in huge mittens and said goodbye to her. The reindeer set off at full speed through the stumps and bumps through the forest, through the swamps and steppes. Wolves howled, crows croaked.

Phew! Phew! - it was suddenly heard from the sky, and it seemed to sneeze with fire.

Here is my native northern lights! - said the deer. - Look how it burns.

Story six
Lapland and Finnish

laziness stopped at a miserable shack. The roof went down to the ground, and the door was so low that people had to crawl through it on all fours.

At home there was an old Lapland woman who was frying fish by the light of a fat lamp. The reindeer told the Lapland woman the whole story of Gerda, but first he told his own - it seemed to him much more important.

Gerda was so numb from the cold that she could not speak.

Oh you poor fellows! said the Laplander. - You still have a long way to go! You'll have to walk a hundred odd miles before you get to Finland, where the Snow Queen lives in her country house and lights blue sparklers every evening. I will write a few words on dried cod - I have no paper - and you will carry the message to the Finnish woman who lives in those places and will be able to teach you what to do better than I can.

When Gerda warmed up, ate and drank, the Laplander wrote a few words on dried cod, ordered Gerda to take good care of her, then tied the girl to the back of a deer, and he rushed off again.

Phew! Phew! - was heard again from the sky, and it began to throw out columns of wonderful blue flame. So the deer ran with Gerda to Finland and knocked on the Finnish chimney - she didn’t even have doors.

Well, the heat was in her home! The Finn herself, a short fat woman, went about half-naked. She quickly pulled off Gerda's dress, mittens and boots, otherwise the girl would be hot, put a piece of ice on the reindeer's head and then began to read what was written on the dried cod.

She read everything from word to word three times, until she memorized it, and then she put the cod into the cauldron - after all, the fish was good for food, and nothing was wasted with the Finn.

Then the deer told first his story, and then the story of Gerda. Finca blinked her intelligent eyes, but did not say a word.

You are such a wise woman... - said the deer. “Won’t you make a drink for the girl that would give her the strength of twelve heroes?” Then she would have defeated the Snow Queen!

The strength of twelve heroes! Finn said. - Is there a lot of good in that!

With these words, she took a large leather scroll from the shelf and unfolded it: it was covered all over with some amazing writing.

The deer again began to ask for Gerda, and Gerda herself looked at the Finn with such pleading eyes full of tears that she blinked again, took the deer aside and, changing the ice on his head, whispered:

Kai is indeed with the Snow Queen, but he is quite pleased and thinks that he cannot be better anywhere. The reason for everything is the fragments of the mirror that sit in his heart and in his eye. They must be removed, otherwise the Snow Queen will retain her power over him.

Can't you give Gerda something that will make her stronger than everyone else?

Stronger than it is, I can't make it. Don't you see how great her power is? Don't you see that both people and animals serve her? After all, she walked around half the world barefoot! It is not for us to borrow her strength, her strength is in her heart, in the fact that she is an innocent sweet child. If she herself cannot penetrate into the halls of the Snow Queen and extract a shard from Kai's heart, then we will not help her even more! Two miles from here begins the Snow Queen's garden. Take the girl there, let her down by a large bush sprinkled with red berries, and, without delay, come back.

With these words, the Finnish girl put Gerda on the back of a deer, and he rushed to run as fast as he could.

Hey, I'm without warm boots! Hey, I'm not wearing gloves! cried Gerda, finding herself in the cold.

But the deer did not dare to stop until he reached a bush with red berries. Then he let the girl down, kissed her on the lips, and large, shining tears rolled down his cheeks. Then he shot back like an arrow.

The poor girl was left alone in the bitter cold, without shoes, without mittens.

She ran forward as fast as she could. A whole regiment of snow flakes rushed towards her, but they did not fall from the sky - the sky was completely clear, and the northern lights were blazing in it - no, they ran along the ground straight at Gerda and became larger and larger.

Gerda remembered the big beautiful flakes under the magnifying glass, but these were much bigger, scarier and all alive.

These were the forward sentinel troops of the Snow Queen.

Some resembled large ugly hedgehogs, others - hundred-headed snakes, others - fat bear cubs with tousled hair. But they all sparkled with the same whiteness, they were all living snowflakes.

However, Gerda boldly walked on and on and finally reached the halls of the Snow Queen.

Let's see what happened to Kai at that time. He did not think about Gerda, and least of all about the fact that she was so close to him.

Story Seven
What happened in the halls of the Snow Queen and what happened next

the shadows of the halls were blizzards, the windows and doors were violent winds. More than a hundred halls stretched here one after the other as a blizzard swept them. All of them were illuminated by the northern lights, and the largest one stretched for many, many miles. How cold, how deserted it was in those white, brightly shining halls! Fun never came here. Bear balls have never been held here with dances to the music of the storm, at which polar bears could distinguish themselves by grace and the ability to walk on their hind legs; games of cards with quarrels and fights were never drawn up, little white chanterelle gossips did not converge for a conversation over a cup of coffee.

Cold, deserted, grandiose! The northern lights flashed and burned so regularly that it was possible to calculate exactly at what minute the light would increase and at what time it would fade. In the middle of the largest deserted snow hall was a frozen lake. The ice cracked on it into a thousand pieces, so identical and regular that it seemed like some kind of trick. In the middle of the lake sat the Snow Queen when she was at home, saying that she was sitting on the mirror of the mind; in her opinion, it was the only and best mirror in the world.

Kai turned completely blue, almost turned black from the cold, but did not notice this - the kisses of the Snow Queen made him insensitive to the cold, and his very heart was like a piece of ice. Kai fiddled with flat, pointed ice floes, laying them in all sorts of frets. After all, there is such a game - folding figures from wooden planks - which is called the Chinese puzzle. So Kai also folded various intricate figures, only from ice floes, and this was called an icy mind game. In his eyes, these figures were a marvel of art, and folding them was an occupation of paramount importance. This was due to the fact that a fragment of a magic mirror sat in his eye.

He also added such figures from which whole words were obtained, but he could not put together what he especially wanted - the word "eternity." The Snow Queen told him: "If you add this word, you will be your own master, and I I will give you the whole world and a pair of new skates.” But he couldn't put it down.

Now I will fly to warmer climes,” said the Snow Queen. - I'll look into the black cauldrons.

So she called the craters of the fire-breathing mountains - Etna and Vesuvius.

I'll whiten them a little. It's good for lemons and grapes.

She flew away, and Kai was left alone in the boundless deserted hall, looking at the ice floes and thinking, thinking, so that his head was cracking. He sat there, so pale, motionless, as if lifeless. You might think he was completely cold.

At this time, Gerda entered the huge gate, which was the violent winds. And before her the winds subsided, as if asleep. She entered a huge deserted ice hall and saw Kai. She immediately recognized him, threw herself on his neck, hugged him tightly and exclaimed:

Kai, my dear Kai! Finally I found you!

But he sat still the same motionless and cold. And then Gerda wept; her hot tears fell on his chest, penetrated into his heart, melted the ice crust, melted the shard. Kai looked at Gerda and suddenly burst into tears and cried so hard that the shard flowed out of his eye along with his tears. Then he recognized Gerda and was delighted:

Gerda! Dear Gerda! Where have you been for so long? Where was I myself? And he looked around. - How cold it is here, deserted!

And he clung tightly to Gerda. And she laughed and cried with joy. And it was so wonderful that even the ice floes began to dance, and when they got tired, they lay down and made up the very word that the Snow Queen asked Kai to compose. Having folded it, he could become his own master, and even receive from her a gift of the whole world and a pair of new skates.

Gerda kissed Kai on both cheeks, and they again blushed like roses; kissed his eyes, and they shone; kissed his hands and feet, and he again became vigorous and healthy.

The Snow Queen could come back anytime - his vacation card lay there, written in glittering ice letters.

Kai and Gerda left the ice halls hand in hand. They walked and talked about their grandmother, about the roses that bloomed in their garden, and before them the violent winds subsided, the sun peeped through. And when they reached the bush with red berries, the reindeer was already waiting for them.

Kai and Gerda went first to the Finn, warmed up with her and found out the way home, and then to the Lapland. She sewed them a new dress, repaired her sleigh and went to see them off.

The deer also accompanied the young travelers up to the very border of Lapland, where the first greenery was already breaking through. Here Kai and Gerda said goodbye to him and the Laplander.

Here is the forest in front of them. The first birds sang, the trees were covered with green buds. A young girl in a bright red cap with pistols in her belt rode out of the forest to meet the travelers on a magnificent horse.

Gerda immediately recognized both the horse - it had once been harnessed to a golden carriage - and the girl. It was a little robber.

She also recognized Gerda. That was joy!

Look, you tramp! she said to Kai. “I would like to know if you are worthy of being followed to the ends of the earth?”

But Gerda patted her on the cheek and asked about the prince and princess.

They went to foreign lands, - answered the young robber.

And the raven? asked Gerda.

The forest raven is dead; the tame crow was left a widow, walks with black hair on its leg and complains about fate. But all this is nothing, but you better tell me what happened to you and how you found him.

Gerda and Kai told her about everything.

Well, that's the end of the story! - said the young robber, shook hands with them and promised to visit them if she ever came to them in the city.

Then she went on her way, and Kai and Gerda went on theirs.

They walked, and spring flowers bloomed on their way, the grass turned green. Then the bells rang out, and they recognized the bell towers of their native city. They climbed the familiar stairs and entered the room, where everything was the same as before: the clock said "tic-tac", the hands moved along the dial. But, passing through the low door, they noticed that they had become quite adults. Flowering rose bushes looked in from roofs through the open window, their children's chairs were right there, Kai and Gerda each sat down on their own, took each other's hands, and the cold desert splendor of the palaces of the Snow Queen was forgotten like a heavy dream.

So they sat side by side, both already adults, but children in heart and soul, and it was summer outside, a warm, fertile summer.

Mirror and its fragments

boy and girl

Prince and Princess

Little Robber

Lapland and Finnish

Mirror and its fragments

Let's start! When we reach the end of our history, we will know more than we do now. So, once upon a time there was a troll, feisty-preslying; it was the devil himself. Once he was in a particularly good mood: he made such a mirror in which everything good and beautiful was utterly reduced, yet the worthless and ugly, on the contrary, appeared even brighter, it seemed even worse. The most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach in it, and the best of people looked like freaks, or it seemed that they were standing upside down, but they had no bellies at all! Faces were distorted to the point that it was impossible to recognize them; if someone had a freckle or a mole on his face, it spread all over his face. The devil was terribly amused by all this. A kind, pious human thought was reflected in the mirror with an unimaginable grimace, so that the troll could not help laughing, rejoicing at his invention. All the students of the troll - he had his own school - talked about the mirror as if it were some kind of miracle.

“Now only,” they said, “you can see the whole world and people in their true light!

And so they ran with the mirror everywhere; soon there was not a single country, not a single person left that would not be reflected in it in a distorted form. Finally, they wanted to get to heaven to laugh at the angels and the Creator himself. The higher they climbed, the more the mirror grimaced and writhed from grimaces; they could barely hold it in their hands. But then they got up again, and suddenly the mirror was so warped that it escaped from their hands, flew to the ground and shattered. Millions, billions of its fragments, however, have done even more trouble than the mirror itself. Some of them were no more than a grain of sand, scattered around the wide world, fell, it happened, into people's eyes, and so they remained there. A person with such a shard in his eye began to see everything upside down or to notice only the bad sides in every thing - after all, each shard retained the property that distinguished the mirror itself. For some people, the fragments hit right in the heart, and this was the worst: the heart turned into a piece of ice. There were large ones between these fragments, such that they could be inserted into window frames, but it was not worth looking at your good friends through these windows. Finally, there were also such fragments that went on glasses, only the trouble was if people put them on in order to look at things and judge them more correctly! And the evil troll laughed to the point of colic, the success of this invention tickled him so pleasantly. But many more fragments of the mirror flew around the world. Let's hear about them.

boy and girl

In a big city, where there are so many houses and people that not everyone and everyone manages to fence off at least a small place for a garden, and where, therefore, most of the inhabitants have to be content with indoor flowers in pots, there lived two poor children, but they had a garden larger than a flower pot. They were not related, but they loved each other like brother and sister. Their parents lived in the attics of adjacent houses. The roofs of the houses almost converged, and under the ledges of the roofs there was a gutter, which fell just under the window of each attic. It was worth, thus, to step out of some window onto the gutter, and you could find yourself at the window of the neighbors.

My parents each had a large wooden box; roots grew in them and small bushes of roses, one in each, showered with wonderful flowers. It occurred to the parents to put these boxes at the bottom of the gutters; thus, from one window to another stretched like two flower beds. Peas descended from the boxes in green garlands, rose bushes peered into the windows and intertwined branches; something like a triumphal gate of greenery and flowers was formed. Since the boxes were very high and the children firmly knew that they were not allowed to climb on them, the parents often allowed the boy and girl to visit each other on the roof and sit on a bench under roses. And what fun games they played here!

In winter, this pleasure ceased, the windows were often covered with ice patterns. But the children heated copper coins on the stove and applied them to the frozen panes - a wonderful round hole immediately thawed, and a cheerful, affectionate eye peered into it - each looked out of his window, a boy and a girl, Kai and Gerda. In summer, they could find themselves visiting each other with one jump, and in winter, they had to first go down many, many steps down, and then climb the same number up. There was snow in the yard.

- It's white bees swarming! said the old grandmother.

“Do they also have a queen?” the boy asked; he knew real bees had one.

- There is! Grandma answered. - Snowflakes surround her in a dense swarm, but she is larger than all of them and never remains on the ground - she always rushes on a black cloud. Often at night she flies through the city streets and looks into the windows; that's why they are covered with ice patterns, like flowers!

- Seen, seen! - the children said and believed that all this was the absolute truth.

"Can't the Snow Queen come in here?" the girl asked once.

- Let him try! the boy said. - I'll put it on a warm stove, so it will melt!

But the grandmother patted him on the head and started talking about something else.

In the evening, when Kai was already at home and had almost completely undressed, about to go to bed, he climbed onto a chair by the window and looked into a small circle thawed on the window pane. Snowflakes fluttered outside the window; one of them, a larger one, fell on the edge of a flower box and began to grow, grow, until finally it turned into a woman wrapped in the thinnest white tulle, woven, it seemed, from millions of snow stars. She was so lovely, so tender, all of dazzling white ice and yet alive! Her eyes sparkled like stars, but there was neither warmth nor meekness in them. She nodded to the boy and beckoned him with her hand. The little boy was frightened and jumped off the chair; something like a large bird flashed past the window.

The next day there was a glorious frost, but then there was a thaw, and then spring came. The sun was shining, the flower boxes were all green again, the swallows were nesting under the roof, the windows were opened, and the children could again sit in their little garden on the roof.

The roses bloomed beautifully all summer. The girl learned a psalm, which also spoke of roses; the girl sang it to the boy, thinking about her roses, and he sang along with her:

The children sang, holding hands, kissed roses, looked at the bright sun and talked to it - it seemed to them that the infant Christ himself was looking at them from it. What a wonderful summer it was, and how good it was under the bushes of fragrant roses, which, it seemed, were supposed to bloom forever!

Kai and Gerda sat and looked at a book with pictures - animals and birds; the big clock tower struck five.

- Ai! the boy suddenly exclaimed. - I was stabbed right in the heart, and something got into my eye!

The girl threw her arm around his neck, he blinked, but there seemed to be nothing in his eye.

It must have jumped out! - he said.

But that's the point, it's not. Two fragments of the devil's mirror fell into his heart and into his eye, in which, as we, of course, remember, everything great and good seemed insignificant and ugly, and evil and evil was reflected even brighter, the bad sides of each thing came out even sharper. Poor Kai! Now his heart should have turned into a piece of ice! The pain in the eye and in the heart has already passed, but the fragments themselves remained in them.

- What are you crying about? he asked Gerda. — Wu! How ugly are you now! It doesn't hurt me at all! Ugh! he suddenly shouted. - This rose is sharpened by a worm! And that one is completely crooked! What ugly roses! No better than boxes in which they stick out!

And he, pushing the box with his foot, tore out two roses.

"Kai, what are you doing?" the girl screamed, and he, seeing her fright, snatched another one and ran away from pretty little Gerda through his window.

If after that the girl brought him a book with pictures, he said that these pictures are good only for babies; if the old grandmother told anything, he found fault with the words. Yes, if only this! And then he got to the point that he began to mimic her walk, put on her glasses and imitate her voice! It came out very similar and made people laugh. Soon the boy learned to imitate all the neighbors - he was very good at showing off all their oddities and shortcomings - and people said:

What a head this little boy has!

And the reason for everything was the fragments of the mirror that hit him in the eye and in the heart. That is why he even mimicked the pretty little Gerda, who loved him with all her heart.

And his amusements have now become completely different, so tricky. Once in the winter, when it was snowing, he came with a large burning glass and put the skirt of his blue jacket under the snow.

“Look through the glass, Gerda!” - he said. Each snowflake seemed much larger under the glass than it actually was, and looked like a magnificent flower or a ten-pointed star. What a miracle!

See how well done! Kai said. “This is much more interesting than real flowers!” And what precision! Not a single wrong line! Ah, if only they had not melted!

A little later, Kai appeared in big mittens, with a sled behind his back, shouted into Gerda's ear:

“They let me ride in the big square with the other boys!” - And running.

There were a lot of children on the square. Those who were more daring tied their sledges to the peasants' sledges and traveled quite far in this way. The fun went on and on. In the midst of it, large sleighs painted white appeared on the square. In them sat a man, all gone in a white fur coat and a similar cap. The sleigh circled the square twice: Kai quickly tied his sledge to it and drove off. The big sledges sped faster and then turned off the square into a side street. The man sitting in them turned around and nodded to Kai, as though he were familiar. Kai several times tried to untie his sled, but the man in the fur coat nodded to him, and he rode on. Here they are outside the city gates. Snow suddenly fell in flakes, it got so dark that not a single light could be seen all around. The boy hurriedly let go of the rope, which caught on the big sledge, but his sledge seemed to stick to the big sledge and continued to rush along in a whirlwind. Kai screamed loudly - no one heard him! The snow was falling, the sledges were racing, diving in snowdrifts, jumping over hedges and ditches. Kai was trembling all over, he wanted to read the Our Father, but in his mind one multiplication table was spinning.

The snowflakes kept growing and finally turned into big white hens. Suddenly they scattered to the sides, the big sledge stopped, and the man sitting in it stood up. It was a tall, slender, dazzling white woman - the Snow Queen; and her fur coat and hat were made of snow.

- Nice ride! - she said. "But are you completely cold?" Get into my coat!

And, placing the boy in her sleigh, she wrapped him in her fur coat; Kai seemed to sink into a snowdrift.

"Are you still dead?" she asked and kissed him on the forehead.

Wu! Her kiss was colder than ice, pierced him with cold through and through and reached the very heart, and it was already half icy. For a minute it seemed to Kai that he was about to die, but no, on the contrary, it became easier, he even completely stopped feeling cold.

- My sleds! Don't forget my sled! he said.

And the sledge was tied on the back of one of the white hens, which flew with them after the big sledge. The Snow Queen kissed Kai again, and he forgot Gerda, his grandmother, and all the household.

"I won't kiss you again!" - she said. "Or I'll kiss you to death!"

Kai looked at her; she was so good! He could not have imagined a smarter, more charming face. Now she did not seem to him icy, as she had been sitting outside the window and nodding her head to him; now she seemed perfect to him. He was not at all afraid of her and told her that he knew all four operations of arithmetic, and even with fractions, he knew how many square miles and inhabitants in each country, and she only smiled in response. And then it seemed to him that he really knew little, and he fixed his eyes on the endless air space. At the same moment, the Snow Queen flew with him onto a dark lead cloud, and they rushed forward. The storm howled and groaned, as if singing old songs; they flew over forests and lakes, over seas and solid land; below them cold winds blew, wolves howled, snow sparkled, black crows flew with a cry, and above them shone a large clear moon. Kai looked at him all the long, long winter night - during the day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.

Flower garden of a woman who knew how to conjure

And what happened to Gerda when Kai did not return? Where did he go? No one knew this, no one could tell anything about him. The boys said only that they saw him tying his sledge to a large magnificent sledge, which then turned into an alley and drove out of the city gates. Nobody knew where he had gone. Many tears were shed for him; Gerda wept bitterly and for a long time. Finally, they decided that he had died, drowned in the river that flowed outside the city. The dark winter days dragged on for a long time.

But then spring came, the sun came out.

Kai is dead and will never come back! Gerda said.

- I do not believe! Sunlight answered.

He is dead and will never come back! she repeated to the swallows.

- We do not believe! they replied.

In the end, Gerda herself stopped believing it.

I'll put on my new red shoes. “Kai has never seen them yet,” she said one morning, “but I’ll go to the river to ask about him.”

It was still very early; she kissed her sleeping grandmother, put on her red shoes and ran all alone out of town, straight to the river.

“Is it true that you took my sworn brother?” I'll give you my red shoes if you give it back to me!

And it seemed to the girl that the waves were somehow strangely nodding to her; then she took off her red shoes, her first jewel, and threw them into the river. But they fell just off the shore, and the waves immediately carried them to land - it was as if the river did not want to take her jewel from the girl, since she could not return Kai to her. The girl thought that she had not thrown her shoes very far, climbed into the boat, which was rocking in the reeds, stood on the very edge of the stern and again threw the shoes into the water. The boat was not tied and pushed off the shore. The girl wanted to jump onto land as soon as possible, but while she was making her way from stern to bow, the boat had already moved a whole arshin from the beret and quickly rushed down the stream.

Gerda was terribly frightened and began to cry and scream, but no one except the sparrows heard her cries; the sparrows, however, could not transfer her to land and only flew after her along the coast and chirped, as if wishing to console her: “We are here! We are here!"

The banks of the river were very beautiful; everywhere one could see the most wonderful flowers, tall, sprawling trees, meadows on which sheep and cows grazed, but nowhere was a single human soul to be seen.

“Maybe the river is taking me to Kai?” - thought Gerda, cheered up, stood on her nose and admired the beautiful green shores for a long, long time. But then she sailed to a large cherry orchard, in which a house with colored glass in the windows and a thatched roof sheltered. Two wooden soldiers stood at the door and saluted everyone who passed by with their guns.

Gerda screamed at them - she mistook them for living ones - but they, of course, did not answer her. So she swam even closer to them, the boat approached almost to the very shore, and the girl screamed even louder. Out of the house came out, leaning on a stick, an old, very old woman in a big straw hat painted with wonderful flowers.

“Oh, you poor little one! said the old woman. “How did you get on such a big fast river and get so far?”

With these words, the old woman entered the water, hooked the boat with her stick, pulled it to the shore and landed Gerda.

Gerda was very glad that she finally found herself on dry land, although she was afraid of someone else's old woman.

“Well, let’s go, but tell me who you are and how you got here?” said the old woman.

Gerda began to tell her about everything, and the old woman shook her head and repeated: “Hm! Hm! But now the girl had finished and asked the old woman if she had seen Kai. She replied that he had not yet passed here, but, surely, he would pass, so the girl had nothing to grieve about yet - she would rather try cherries and admire the flowers that grow in the garden: they are more beautiful than those drawn in any picture book and everyone knows how to tell fairy tales! Then the old woman took Gerda by the hand, took her to her house and locked the door with a key.

The windows were high from the floor and all of multi-colored - red, blue and yellow - glass; from this the room itself was illuminated by some amazing bright, iridescent light. There was a basket of ripe cherries on the table, and Gerda could eat them as much as she liked; while she was eating, the old woman combed her hair with a golden comb. Her hair was curly, and the curls surrounded the fresh, round, like a rose, face of the girl with a golden glow.

"I've wanted to have such a pretty girl for a long time!" said the old woman. “You’ll see how well we’ll live with you!”

And she continued to comb the girl's curls, and the longer she combed, the more Gerda forgot her named brother Kai - the old woman knew how to conjure. She was not an evil sorceress and conjured only occasionally, for her own pleasure; now she really wanted to keep Gerda. And so she went into the garden, touched with her stick all the rose bushes, and as they stood in full bloom, they all went deep, deep into the ground, and there was no trace of them. The old woman was afraid that Gerda, at the sight of her roses, would remember her own, and then Kai, and run away.

Having done her job, the old woman took Gerda to the flower garden. The girl's eyes widened: there were flowers of all kinds, all seasons. What a beauty, what a fragrance! In all the world one could not find more colorful and beautiful picture books than this flower garden. Gerda jumped for joy and played among the flowers until the sun went down behind the tall cherry trees. Then they put her in a wonderful bed with red silk feather beds stuffed with blue violets; the girl fell asleep, and she had such dreams as only a queen sees on her wedding day.

The next day Gerda was again allowed to play in the sun. So many days passed. Gerda knew every flower in the garden, but no matter how many there were, it still seemed to her that some one was missing, but which one? Once she sat and looked at the old woman's straw hat, painted with flowers; the most beautiful of them was just a rose - the old woman forgot to erase it. That's what distraction means!

- How! Are there any roses here? - said Gerda and immediately ran to look for them all over the garden - there is not one!

Then the girl sank to the ground and wept. Warm tears fell right on the spot where one of the rose bushes used to stand, and as soon as they wet the ground, the bush instantly grew out of it, just as fresh, blooming as before. Gerda wrapped her arms around him, began to kiss the roses and remembered those wonderful roses that bloomed at her house, and at the same time about Kai.

- How I hesitated! the girl said. “I have to look for Kai! Do you know where he is?” she asked the roses. Do you believe that he died and will not return again?

He didn't die! the roses said. “We were underground, where all the dead lie, but Kai was not among them.

- Thank you! - said Gerda and went to other flowers, looked into their cups and asked: - Do you know where Kai is?

But each flower basked in the sun and thought only of its own fairy tale or story; Gerda heard a lot of them, but not one of the flowers said a word about Kai.

What did the fiery lily tell her?

Do you hear the drum beat? Boom! Boom! The sounds are very monotonous: boom, boom! Listen to the mournful singing of women! Listen to the cries of the priests!.. An Indian widow is standing at the stake in a long red robe. The flames are about to engulf her and the body of her dead husband, but she thinks about the living - about the one who is standing here, about the one whose eyes burn her heart more than the flame that will now incinerate her body. Can the flame of the heart be extinguished in the flame of a fire!

- I don't understand anything! Gerda said.

This is my fairy tale! replied the fiery lily.

What did the bindweed say?

- A narrow mountain path leads to an ancient knight's castle proudly towering on a rock. The old brick walls are thickly covered with ivy. Its leaves cling to the balcony, and on the balcony stands a lovely girl; she leaned over the railing and looked at the road. The girl is fresher than a rose, more airy than an apple blossom swayed by the wind. How her silk dress rustles! "Won't he come?"

Are you talking about Kai? Gerda asked.

— I tell my fairy tale, my dreams! - answered the bindweed.

What did the little snowdrop say?

- A long board swings between the trees - this is a swing. Two little girls are sitting on the board; their dresses are white as snow, and long green silk ribbons flutter from their hats. The brother, older than them, kneels behind the sisters, leaning on the ropes; in one hand he holds a small cup of soapy water, in the other a clay tube. He blows bubbles, the board sways, the bubbles fly through the air, shimmering in the sun with all the colors of the rainbow. Here is one hanging on the end of the tube and swaying from the wind. A black dog, light as a soap bubble, stands up on its hind legs, and puts its front paws on the board, but the board flies up, the dog falls, yelps and gets angry. Children tease her, bubbles burst ... The board sways, foam scatters - this is my song!

“She may be good, but you say all this in such a sad tone!” And again, not a word about Kai! What will the hyacinths say?

- Once upon a time there were two slender, airy beauties sisters. On one dress was red, on the other blue, on the third completely white. Hand in hand they danced in the clear moonlight by the still lake. They were not elves, but real girls. A sweet fragrance filled the air, and the girls disappeared into the forest. Here the aroma became even stronger, even sweeter - three coffins floated out of the thicket of the forest; beautiful sisters lay in them, and fireflies fluttered around them like living lights. Are the girls sleeping, or are they dead? The scent of the flowers says they are dead. The evening bell tolls for the dead!

"You made me sad!" Gerda said. “Your bells smell so strong too!.. Now I can’t get dead girls out of my head!” Oh, is Kai dead too? But the roses were underground and they say that he is not there!

— Ding-dan! hyacinth bells chimed. We are not calling over Kai! We don't even know him! We call our own ditty; we don't know the other one!

And Gerda went to the golden dandelion shining in the brilliant green grass.

“You little bright sun! Gerda told him. “Tell me, do you know where I can look for my named brother?”

Dandelion shone even brighter and looked at the girl. What song did he sing to her? Alas! And in this song not a word was said about Kai!

- Early spring; The bright sun shines warmly on the small courtyard. Swallows hover near the white wall adjoining the neighbors' yard. From the green grass, the first yellow flowers peep out, sparkling in the sun, like gold. An old grandmother came out to sit in the yard; her granddaughter, a poor maid, came from among the guests, and kissed the old woman tightly. A girl's kiss is more precious than gold - it comes straight from the heart. Gold on her lips, gold in her heart. That's all! Dandelion said.

“My poor grandmother! Gerda sighed. How she misses me, how she grieves! No less than she grieved for Kai! But I'll be back soon and bring him with me. There is nothing more to ask the flowers - you will not achieve anything from them, they only know their songs!

And she tied her skirt up to make it easier to run, but when she wanted to jump over the narcissus, he whipped her legs. Gerda stopped, looked at the long flower and asked:

- Do you know anything?

And she leaned towards him, waiting for an answer. What did the narcissist say?

- I see myself! I see myself! Oh, how fragrant I am! .. High, high in a small closet, under the very roof, there is a half-dressed dancer. She now balances on one leg, then again stands firmly on both and tramples the whole world with them - she is, after all, one optical illusion. Here she is pouring water from a teapot onto some white piece of matter that she is holding in her hands. This is her corsage. Cleanliness is the best beauty! A white skirt hangs on a nail driven into the wall; the skirt was also washed with water from the kettle and dried on the roof! Here the girl is dressing and tying a bright yellow handkerchief around her neck, which sets off the whiteness of the dress even more sharply. Again one leg soars into the air! Look how straight it stands on the other, like a flower on its stem! I see myself, I see myself!

- Yes, I have little to do with this! Gerda said. “There is nothing for me to tell about it!

And she ran out of the garden.

The door was locked only with a latch; Gerda pulled a rusty bolt, it gave way, the door opened, and the girl, barefooted, started running along the road! She looked back three times, but no one pursued her. Finally, she got tired, sat down on a stone and looked around: the summer had already passed, it was late autumn in the yard, and in the old woman’s wonderful garden, where the sun always shone and flowers of all seasons bloomed, this was not noticeable!

- God! How I lingered! After all, autumn is in the yard! There is no time for rest! said Gerda, and set off again.

Oh, how her poor, tired legs hurt! How cold and damp it was in the air! The leaves on the willows were completely yellowed, the fog settled on them in large drops and flowed down to the ground; the leaves fell off like that. One blackthorn stood all covered with astringent, tart berries. How gray and dreary the whole world seemed!

Prince and Princess

Gerda had to sit down again to rest. A large raven jumped in the snow in front of her; he looked at the girl for a long, long time, nodding his head to her, and finally spoke:

- Kar-kar! Hello!

He could not pronounce it more humanly than this, but, apparently, he wished the girl well and asked her where she was wandering all alone in the wide world? Gerda understood the words "alone and alone" perfectly and immediately felt all their meaning. Having told the raven all her life, the girl asked if he had seen Kai?

Raven shook his head thoughtfully and said:

- May be!

- How? Truth? the girl exclaimed, and almost strangled the raven with her kisses.

- Quiet, quiet! said the raven. “I think it was your Kai!” But now he must have forgotten you and his princess!

Does he live with the princess? Gerda asked.

- But listen! said the raven. “But it’s terribly difficult for me to speak your way!” Now, if you understood like a crow, I would tell you about everything much better.

No, they didn't teach me that! Gerda said. - Grandma - she understands! It would be nice if I could too!

- That is OK! said the raven. “I’ll tell you what I can, even if it’s bad.

And he told about everything that only he knew.

“In the kingdom where you and I are, there is a princess who is so smart that it’s impossible to say! She has read all the newspapers in the world and has already forgotten everything she has read - what a clever girl! Once she was sitting on the throne - and there's not much fun in it, as people say - and she sang a song: "Why shouldn't I get married?" “But indeed!” she thought, and she wanted to get married. But for her husband, she wanted to choose a man who would be able to answer when they spoke to him, and not someone who would only know how to put on airs - it's so boring! And so they called together all the courtiers with a drumbeat and announced to them the will of the princess. They were all very pleased and said: “This is what we like! We’ve been thinking about this ourselves recently!” All this is true! added the raven. - I have a bride at court, she is tame, walks around the palace - from her I know all this.

His bride was a crow - after all, everyone is looking for a wife to match.

- The next day all the newspapers came out with a border of hearts and with the monograms of the princess. It was announced in the newspapers that every young man of good appearance could come to the palace and talk with the princess: the one who would behave quite freely, like at home, and turn out to be more eloquent than everyone else, the princess would choose her husband! Yes Yes! repeated the raven. “All this is as true as the fact that I am sitting here in front of you!” The people poured into the palace in droves, there was a stampede and a crush, but nothing came of it either on the first or on the second day. On the street, all the suitors spoke perfectly, but as soon as they stepped over the palace threshold, saw the guards all in silver, and the lackeys in gold, and entered the huge, light-filled halls, they were dumbfounded. They will approach the throne where the princess sits, and they only repeat her last words, but she didn’t need that at all! It’s true, they were all definitely drugged with dope! But when they left the gate, they again acquired the gift of speech. From the very gates to the doors of the palace stretched a long, long tail of suitors. I have been there and seen it! The suitors wanted to eat and drink, but even a glass of water was not taken out of the palace. True, those who were smarter stocked up on sandwiches, but the thrifty no longer shared with their neighbors, thinking to themselves: “Let them starve, emaciate - the princess will not take them!”

- Well, what about Kai, Kai? Gerda asked. - When did he come? And he came to marry?

— Wait! Wait! Now we just got to it! On the third day, a little man appeared, not in a carriage, not on horseback, but simply on foot, and entered the palace directly. His eyes shone like yours; his hair was long, but he was poorly dressed.

It's Kai! Gerda rejoiced. So I found him! and she clapped her hands.

He had a bag on his back! continued the raven.

— No, it must have been his sleigh! Gerda said. He left home with a sled!

- Very possible! said the raven. - I didn't get a good look. So, my fiancee told me that when she entered the palace gates and saw the guards in silver, and the lackeys in gold on the stairs, he was not at all embarrassed, nodded his head and said: “It must be boring to stand here on the stairs, I'd rather go into the rooms!" The halls were all flooded with light; noblemen walked about without boots, carrying golden dishes - it could not have been more solemn! And his boots creaked, but he was not embarrassed by this either.

It must be Kai! exclaimed Gerda. “I know he was wearing new boots!” I myself heard how they creaked when he came to his grandmother!

- Yes, they did creak in order! continued the raven. But he boldly approached the princess; she sat on a pearl the size of a spinning wheel, and all around stood the ladies of the court and gentlemen with their maids, maids of the maids, valets, servants of the valets and servant of the valet servants. The farther one stood from the princess and closer to the doors, the more important, haughty he kept himself. It was impossible even to look at the servant of the valet servants, who was standing at the very door, without fear, he was so important!

- That's fear! Gerda said. Did Kai marry the princess after all?

“If I weren’t a raven, I would have married her myself, even though I’m engaged. He entered into conversation with the princess and spoke as well as I do when I speak crow-at least that's what my fiancée told me. In general, he behaved very freely and nicely and declared that he did not come to woo, but only to listen to the clever speeches of the princess. Well, now, he liked her, she liked him too!

Yes, yes, it's Kai! Gerda said. - He's so smart! He knew all four operations of arithmetic, and even with fractions! Oh, take me to the palace!

“Easy to say,” replied the raven, “but how to do it?” Wait, I'll talk to my fiancee, she'll come up with something and advise us. Do you think that they will let you into the palace right like that? Why, they don't let girls like that in!

- They'll let me in! Gerda said. “If only Kai would hear that I’m here, he would come running after me now!”

“Wait for me here, by the grate!” - said the raven, shook his head and flew away.

He returned quite late in the evening and croaked:

- Kar, Kar! My bride sends you a thousand bows and this little loaf of bread. She stole it in the kitchen - there are a lot of them, and you must be hungry! .. Well, you won’t get into the palace: you’re barefoot - the guards in silver and the lackeys in gold will never let you through. But don't cry, you'll still get there. My fiancee knows how to get into the princess's bedroom from the back door, and knows where to get the key.

And so they entered the garden, walked along the long avenues strewn with yellowed autumn leaves, and when all the lights in the palace windows went out one by one, the raven led the girl through a small half-open door.

Oh, how Gerda's heart beat with fear and joyful impatience! She was definitely going to do something bad, and she only wanted to know if her Kai was here! Yes, yes, he is right here! She so vividly imagined his intelligent eyes, long hair, smile ... How he smiled at her when they used to sit side by side under rose bushes! And how happy he will be now when he sees her, hears what a long path she decided on for him, learns how all the household grieved for him! Ah, she was just beside herself with fear and joy.

But here they are on the landing of the stairs; a lamp burned on the closet, and a tame crow sat on the floor and looked around. Gerda sat down and bowed, as her grandmother taught.

“My fiancé has told me so many good things about you, Freken!” said the tame crow. - Your vita - as they say - is also very touching! Would you like to take a lamp, and I'll go ahead. We'll take the straight road, we won't meet anyone here!

“But I think someone is following us!” - said Gerda, and at the same moment some shadows rushed past her with a slight noise: horses with fluttering manes and thin legs, hunters, ladies and gentlemen on horseback.

- These are dreams! said the tame crow. “They come here to let the minds of high people go hunting. So much the better for us - it will be more convenient to consider the sleeping ones! I hope, however, that by entering in honor you will show that you have a grateful heart!

- There is something to talk about here! Needless to say! said the forest raven.

Then they entered the first room, all covered with pink satin, woven with flowers. Dreams flashed past the girl again, but so quickly that she did not even have time to look at the riders. One room was more magnificent than the other - just taken aback. Finally they reached the bedroom: the ceiling looked like the top of a huge palm tree with precious crystal leaves; from the middle of it descended a thick golden stalk, on which hung two beds in the form of lilies. One was white, the princess slept in it, the other was red, and Gerda hoped to find Kai in it. The girl slightly bent one of the red petals and saw a dark blond nape. It's Kai! She called him by name loudly and held the lamp close to his face. Dreams rushed away with a noise: the prince woke up and turned his head ... Ah, it was not Kai!

The prince looked like him only from the back of his head, but he was just as young and handsome. A princess looked out of a white lily and asked what happened. Gerda wept and told her whole history, mentioning what the crows had done for her.

- Oh, you poor thing! - said the prince and princess, praised the ravens, announced that they were not at all angry with them - only let them not do this in the future - and even wanted to reward them.

Do you want to be free birds? the princess asked. “Or do you want to take the position of court ravens, fully supported from kitchen leftovers?”

The raven and the raven bowed and asked for a position at the court - they thought about old age and said:

“It’s good to have a sure piece of bread in old age!”

The prince got up and gave his bed to Gerda; there was nothing more he could do for her. And she folded her little hands and thought: “How kind all people and animals are!” She closed her eyes and fell asleep sweetly. The dreams again flew into the bedroom, but now they looked like God's angels and carried Kai on a small sledge, who nodded his head to Gerda. Alas! All this was only in a dream and disappeared as soon as the girl woke up.

The next day, she was dressed from head to toe in silk and velvet and allowed to stay in the palace as long as she wished. The girl could live and live happily ever after, but she stayed only a few days and began to ask that they give her a cart with a horse and a pair of shoes - she again wanted to start looking for her named brother in the wide world.

They gave her shoes, and a muff, and a wonderful dress, and when she said goodbye to everyone, a golden carriage drove up to the gate with the coats of arms of the prince and princess shining like stars; the coachman, footmen, and postilions—she was given postilions too—were wearing small gold crowns on their heads. The prince and princess themselves put Gerda into the carriage and wished her a happy journey. The forest raven, who had already managed to get married, accompanied the girl for the first three miles and sat in the carriage next to her - he could not ride with his back to the horses. A tame crow sat on the gate and flapped its wings. She did not go to see Gerda off because she had suffered from headaches ever since she got a position at court and ate too much. The carriage was crammed full of sugar pretzels, and the box under the seat was full of fruit and gingerbread.

- Goodbye! Goodbye! shouted the prince and princess.

Gerda began to cry, and so did the crow. So they rode the first three miles. Then the raven said goodbye to the girl. It was a tough breakup! The raven flew up into a tree and flapped its black wings until the carriage, shining like the sun, disappeared from view.

Little Robber

Here Gerda drove into a dark forest, but the carriage shone like the sun, and immediately caught the eye of the robbers. They could not stand it and flew at her shouting: “Gold! Gold!" They grabbed the horses by the bridle, killed the little postilions, the coachman and the servants, and pulled Gerda out of the carriage.

- Look, what a nice, fat little one. Nuts fed! - said the old robber woman with a long, stiff beard and shaggy, hanging eyebrows. - Fatty, what is your lamb! Well, what will it taste like?

And she drew a sharp, shining knife. Here is the horror!

- Ai! she suddenly shouted: she was bitten on the ear by her own daughter, who was sitting behind her and was so unbridled and self-willed that it was a pleasure!

"Oh, you mean girl! the mother screamed, but did not have time to kill Gerda.

She will play with me! said the little robber. “She will give me her muff, her pretty dress, and sleep with me in my bed.

And the girl again bit her mother so much that she jumped and spun in one place. The robbers laughed.

- Look how he rides with his girl!

- I want to get in the carriage! - the little robber screamed and insisted on her own - she was terribly spoiled and stubborn.

They got into the carriage with Gerda and rushed over the stumps and over the bumps into the thicket of the forest. The little robber was as tall as Gerdu, but stronger, broader in the shoulders and much darker. Her eyes were completely black, but somehow sad. She hugged Gerda and said:

"They won't kill you until I'm angry with you!" Are you a princess?

- Not! - the girl answered and told what she had to experience and how she loves Kai.

The little robber looked at her seriously, nodded her head slightly, and said:

“They won’t kill you even if I get angry with you—I’d rather kill you myself!”

And she wiped away Gerda's tears, and then hid both her hands in her pretty, soft and warm muff.

Here the carriage stopped: they drove into the courtyard of the robber's castle. He was covered in huge cracks; crows and crows flew out of them; huge bulldogs jumped out from somewhere and looked so fiercely, as if they wanted to eat everyone, but they didn’t bark - it was forbidden.

In the middle of a huge hall, with dilapidated, soot-covered walls and a stone floor, a fire was burning; the smoke rose to the ceiling and had to find its own way out; Over the fire, soup was boiling in a huge cauldron, and hares and rabbits were roasting on skewers.

“You will sleep with me right here, near my little menagerie!” said the little robber girl to Gerda.

The girls were fed and watered, and they went to their corner, where straw was laid out, covered with carpets. More than a hundred pigeons sat on perches higher up; they all seemed to be asleep, but when the girls approached they stirred slightly.

All mine! said the little robber girl, seizing one of the pigeons by the legs and shaking it so that it fluttered its wings. - Kiss him! she shouted, poking the dove in Gerda's face. - And here sit the forest rascals! she continued, pointing to two pigeons sitting in a small depression in the wall, behind a wooden lattice. “These two are woodland crooks!” They must be kept locked up, otherwise they will fly away quickly! And here is my dear old man! And the girl pulled by the horns of a reindeer tied to the wall in a shiny copper collar. “He must also be kept on a leash, otherwise he will run away!” Every evening I tickle him under the neck with my sharp knife - he is afraid of death!

With these words, the little robber pulled out a long knife from a crevice in the wall and ran it along the deer's neck. The poor animal bucked, and the girl laughed and dragged Gerda to the bed.

— Do you sleep with a knife? Gerda asked her, glancing at the sharp knife.

- Always! answered the little robber. “How do you know what might happen!” But tell me again about Kai and how you set out to wander the wide world!

Gerda told. Wood pigeons in a cage quietly cooed; the other doves were already asleep; the little robber wrapped one arm around Gerda's neck - she had a knife in the other - and began to snore, but Gerda could not close her eyes, not knowing whether they would kill her or let her live. The robbers sat around the fire, sang songs and drank, and the old robber woman tumbled. It was terrible to look at this poor girl.

Suddenly the wood pigeons cooed:

— Kurr! Kurr! We saw Kai! A white hen carried his sled on her back, and he sat in the Snow Queen's sleigh. They flew over the forest when we chicks were still in the nest; she breathed on us, and everyone died, except for the two of us! Kurr! Kurr!

- What are you talking about? exclaimed Gerda. Where did the Snow Queen go?

- She probably flew to Lapland - there is eternal snow and ice! Ask the reindeer what is leashed here!

- Yes, there is eternal snow and ice, it's a miracle how good it is! said the reindeer. - There you jump at will on the endless sparkling icy plains! The Snow Queen's summer tent will be spread there, and her permanent palaces will be at the North Pole, on the island of Svalbard!

— Oh Kai, my dear Kai! Gerda sighed.

- Lie still! said the little robber. "Or I'll stab you with a knife!"

In the morning Gerda told her what she had heard from wood pigeons. The little robber girl looked seriously at Gerda, nodded her head and said:

- Well, so be it! .. Do you know where Lapland is? she then asked the reindeer.

“Who knows if not me!” - answered the deer, and his eyes sparkled. - There I was born and raised, there I jumped on the snowy plains!

- So listen! said the little robber girl to Gerda. “You see, all of us have left; one mother at home; after a while she will take a sip from a large bottle and take a nap - then I will do something for you!

Then the girl jumped out of bed, hugged her mother, pulled her beard and said:

Hello my little goat!

And the mother gave her clicks on the nose, the girl's nose turned red and blue, but all this was done lovingly.

Then, when the old woman took a sip from her bottle and began to snore, the little robber went up to the reindeer and said:

“I could still make fun of you for a long, long time!” Painfully, you can be hilarious when you are tickled with a sharp knife! Well, so be it! I will untie you and set you free. You can run away to your Lapland, but for this you must take this girl to the Snow Queen's palace - her named brother is there. Surely you heard what she said? She spoke quite loudly, and you always have ears on top of your head.

The reindeer jumped for joy. The little robber put Gerda on him, tied her tightly, for the sake of caution, and slipped a soft pillow under her to make it more comfortable for her to sit.

“So be it,” she then said, “take back your fur boots—it will be cold!” And I’ll keep the clutch for myself, it hurts so good! But I won't let you freeze; here are my mother's huge mittens, they will reach you to the very elbows! Put your hands in them! Well, now you have hands like my ugly mother!

Gerda wept for joy.

"I can't stand it when they whine!" said the little robber. “Now you have to have fun!” Here's two more loaves and a ham for you! What? You won't go hungry!

Both were tied to a deer. Then the little robber opened the door, lured the dogs into the house, cut the rope with which the deer was tied with her sharp knife, and said to him:

- Well, live! Look at the girl!

Gerda held out both hands to the little robber in huge mittens and said goodbye to her. The reindeer set off at full speed through stumps and bumps, through the forest, through swamps and steppes. The wolves howled, the crows croaked, and the sky suddenly zafukala and threw out pillars of fire.

- Here is my native northern lights! the deer said. - Look how it's burning!

Lapland and Finnish

The deer stopped at a miserable hut; the roof went down to the ground, and the door was so low that people had to crawl through it on all fours. At home there was an old Lapland woman who was frying fish by the light of a fat lamp. The reindeer told the Laplander the whole story of Gerda, but first he told his own - it seemed to him much more important. Gerda was so numb from the cold that she could not speak.

“Oh, you poor fellows! said the Laplander. “You still have a long way to go!” You'll have to travel over a hundred miles before you get to Finnmark, where the Snow Queen lives in her country house and lights blue sparklers every evening. I will write a few words on dried cod - I have no paper - and you will take it down to a Finnish woman who lives in those places and will be able to teach you what to do better than I can.

When Gerda warmed up, ate and drank, the Laplander wrote a few words on dried cod, ordered Gerda to take good care of her, then tied the girl to the back of a deer, and he rushed off again. The sky again fukalo and threw out pillars of wonderful blue flame. So the deer ran with Gerda to Finnmark and knocked on the Finnish chimney - she didn’t even have doors.

Well, the heat was in her home! The Finn herself, a short, dirty woman, went about half-naked. She quickly pulled off Gerda's entire dress, mittens and boots - otherwise the girl would have been too hot - put a piece of ice on the deer's head and then began to read what was written on the dried cod. She read everything from word to word three times, until she memorized it, and then she put the cod into the cauldron - after all, the fish was good for food, and nothing was wasted with the Finn.

Then the deer told first his story, and then the story of Gerda. Finka blinked her intelligent eyes, but did not say a word.

You are such a wise woman! the deer said. “I know that you can tie all four winds with one thread; when the skipper unties one knot, a fair wind blows, unties another, the weather will break out, and unties the third and fourth, such a storm will rise that it will break the trees into chips. Will you prepare for the girl such a drink that would give her the strength of twelve heroes? Then she would have defeated the Snow Queen!

- The strength of twelve heroes! Finn said. Yes, that makes a lot of sense!

With these words, she took a large leather scroll from the shelf and unfolded it: there were some amazing writing on it; The Finn began to read them and read them until her sweat broke out.

The deer again began to ask for Gerda, and Gerda herself looked at the Finn with such pleading eyes full of tears that she blinked again, took the deer aside and, changing the ice on his head, whispered:

- Kai is indeed with the Snow Queen, but he is quite satisfied and thinks that he cannot be better anywhere. The reason for everything is the fragments of the mirror that sit in his heart and in his eye. They must be removed, otherwise he will never be a man and the Snow Queen will retain her power over him.

“But won’t you help Gerda somehow destroy this power?”

“Stronger than it is, I can’t make it. Don't you see how great her power is? Don't you see that both people and animals serve her? After all, she walked around half the world barefoot! It's not for us to borrow her strength! The strength is in her sweet, innocent baby heart. If she herself cannot penetrate into the halls of the Snow Queen and extract the fragments from Kai's heart, then we will not help her even more! Two miles from here begins the Snow Queen's garden. Take the girl there, let her down by a large bush covered with red berries, and, without delay, come back!

With these words, the Finn planted Gerda on the back of a deer, and he rushed to run as fast as he could.

- Oh, I'm without warm boots! Hey, I'm not wearing gloves! cried Gerda, finding herself in the cold.

But the deer did not dare to stop until he ran to a bush with red berries; then he lowered the girl down, kissed her on the very lips, and large brilliant tears rolled from his eyes. Then he shot back like an arrow. The poor girl was left all alone, in the bitter cold, without shoes, without mittens.

She ran forward as fast as she could; a whole regiment of snow flakes rushed towards her, but they did not fall from the sky - the sky was completely clear, and the northern lights were blazing on it - no, they ran along the ground straight at Gerda and, as they approached, became larger and larger. Gerda remembered the big beautiful flakes under the burning glass, but these were much larger, scarier, of the most amazing shapes and forms, and all alive. These were the advance detachments of the Snow Queen's army. Some resembled large ugly hedgehogs, others - hundred-headed snakes, others - fat bear cubs with tousled hair. But they all sparkled with the same whiteness, they were all living snowflakes.

Gerda began to read "Our Father"; it was so cold that the girl's breath immediately turned into a thick fog. This fog thickened and thickened, but then small, bright angels began to stand out from it, which, having stepped on the ground, grew into large formidable angels with helmets on their heads and spears and shields in their hands. Their number kept increasing, and when Gerda finished her prayer, a whole legion had already formed around her. The angels took the snow monsters on spears, and they crumbled into thousands of snowflakes. Gerda could now boldly go forward; the angels stroked her arms and legs, and she was no longer so cold. Finally, the girl reached the halls of the Snow Queen.

Let's see what Kai was doing at that time. He did not think about Gerda, and least of all about the fact that she was standing in front of the castle.

What happened in the halls of the Snow Queen and what happened next

The walls of the halls of the Snow Queen were swept by a blizzard, the windows and doors were done by violent winds. Hundreds of huge, aurora-lit halls stretched one after another; the largest stretched for many, many miles. How cold, how deserted it was in those white, brightly shining halls! Fun never came here! At least once a bear party would be held here with dances to the music of the storm, in which polar bears could distinguish themselves with grace and the ability to walk on their hind legs, or there would be a party of cards with quarrels and fights, or, finally, they would agree to a conversation over a cup of coffee little white chanterelle gossips - no, that never happened! Cold, deserted, dead! The northern lights flashed and burned so regularly that it was possible to calculate with accuracy at what minute the light would increase and at what time it would weaken. In the middle of the largest desert hall of snow was a frozen lake. The ice cracked on it into thousands of pieces, even and wonderfully regular. In the middle of the lake stood the throne of the Snow Queen; on it she sat when she was at home, saying that she was sitting on the mirror of the mind; in her opinion, it was the only and best mirror in the world.

Kai turned completely blue, almost turned black from the cold, but did not notice this - the kisses of the Snow Queen made him insensitive to the cold, and his very heart became a piece of ice. Kai fiddled with flat, pointed ice floes, laying them in all sorts of frets. After all, there is such a game - folding figures from wooden planks, which is called the "Chinese puzzle". Kai also folded various intricate figures from ice floes, and this was called the "ice game of the mind." In his eyes, these figures were a miracle of art, and folding them was an occupation of the first importance. This was because he had a shard of a magic mirror in his eye! He put together whole words from ice floes, but he could not put together what he especially wanted - the word "eternity". The Snow Queen said to him: "If you add this word, you will be your own master, and I will give you all the world and a pair of new skates." But he couldn't put it down.

Now I'm off to warmer climes! The Snow Queen said. - I'll look into the black cauldrons!

Cauldrons she called the craters of the fire-breathing mountains - Vesuvius and Etna.

And she flew away, and Kai was left alone in the boundless deserted hall, looking at the ice floes and thinking, thinking, so that his head was cracking. He sat in one place - so pale, motionless, as if inanimate. You might think he was cold.

At this time, Gerda entered the huge gate, made by violent winds. She recited the evening prayer, and the winds subsided as if asleep. She freely entered the huge deserted ice hall and saw Kai. The girl immediately recognized him, threw herself on his neck, hugged him tightly and exclaimed:

— Kai, my dear Kai! Finally I found you!

But he sat still the same motionless and cold. Then Gerda wept; her hot tears fell on his chest, penetrated into his heart, melted his icy crust and melted the fragment. Kai looked at Gerda, and she sang:

Roses are blooming... Beauty, beauty!
We will soon see the Christ child.

Kai suddenly burst into tears and cried so long and so hard that the shard flowed out of his eye along with his tears. Then he recognized Gerda and was very happy.

— Gerda! My dear Gerda! Where have you been for so long? Where was I myself? And he looked around. How cold it is here, deserted!

And he clung tightly to Gerda. She laughed and cried with joy. Yes, the joy was such that even the ice floes began to dance, and when they got tired, they lay down and made up the very word that the Snow Queen asked Kai to compose; having folded it, he could become his own master, and even receive from her as a gift the whole world and a pair of new skates.

Gerda kissed Kai on both cheeks, and they again bloomed with roses, kissed him on the eyes, and they shone like her eyes; kissed his hands and feet, and he again became vigorous and healthy.

The Snow Queen could return at any time - his freestyle lay there, written in shiny ice letters.

Kai and Gerda, hand in hand, walked out of the deserted ice halls; they walked and talked about their grandmother, about their roses, and violent winds subsided on their way, the sun peeped through. When they reached a bush with red berries, the reindeer was already waiting for them. He brought with him a young deer mother, her udder was full of milk; she made Kai and Gerda drunk with them and kissed them right on the lips. Then Kai and Gerda went first to the Finn, warmed up with her and found out the way home, and then to the Lapland; she sewed them a new dress, repaired her sleigh and went to see them off.

The reindeer couple also accompanied the young travelers all the way to the very border of Lapland, where the first greenery was already breaking through. Here Kai and Gerda said goodbye to the reindeer and the Lapland girl.

- Have a good trip! the escorts called out to them.

Here is the forest in front of them. The first birds sang, the trees were covered with green buds. A young girl in a bright red hat and with a pistol in her belt rode out of the forest to meet the travelers on a magnificent horse. Gerda immediately recognized both the horse - it had once been harnessed to a golden carriage - and the girl. It was a little robber; she was tired of living at home, and she wanted to go to the north, and if she didn’t like it, to other places. She also recognized Gerda. That was joy!

- Look, you're a tramp! she said to Kai. “I would like to know if you are worth being chased to the ends of the earth!”

But Gerda patted her on the cheek and asked about the prince and princess.

They've gone to foreign lands! answered the young robber.

— A raven with a crow? Gerda asked.

- The forest raven is dead; the tame crow was left a widow, walks with black hair on its leg and complains about fate. But all this is nothing, but you better tell me what happened to you and how you found him.

Gerda and Kai told her everything.

Well, that's the end of the story! - said the young robber, shook hands with them and promised to visit them if she ever came to their city. Then she went on her way, and Kai and Gerda went on theirs. They walked, and spring flowers bloomed on their road, grass turned green. Then the bells rang out, and they recognized the bell towers of their native town. They climbed the familiar stairs and entered the room, where everything was the same as before: the clock ticked the same way, the hour hand moved the same way. But, passing through the low door, they noticed that during this time they had managed to become adults. Blooming rose bushes peered through the open window from the roof; right there were their highchairs. Kai and Gerda each sat down on their own and took each other's hands. The cold, desert splendor of the Snow Queen's halls was forgotten by them, like a heavy dream. Grandmother sat in the sun and loudly read the Gospel: “Unless you are like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven!”

Kai and Gerda looked at each other and only then understood the meaning of the old psalm:

Roses are blooming... Beauty, beauty!
We will soon see the Christ child.

So they sat side by side, both already adults, but children in heart and soul, and in the yard there was a warm, fertile summer!

A long time ago, two children lived in the neighborhood: a boy, Kai, and a girl, Gerda.
One winter, they sat by the window and watched the snowflakes swirl outside.
“I wonder,” Kai drawled thoughtfully, “do they have a queen?”
“Of course,” Grandma nodded. “At night she flies down the street in a snow chariot and looks into the windows. And then ice patterns appear on the glass.
The next day, when the children were again playing by the window, Kai suddenly cried out:
-Ay, something pricked me in the eye, and then in the heart!
The poor boy did not yet know that this was a shard of the Snow Queen's ice mirror, which was supposed to turn his heart into ice.

The Snow Queen

One day the children went to play in the square. In the midst of the fun, a large white sleigh suddenly appeared. No one had time to blink an eye, as Kai tied his sled to them.
The Snow Queen, who was sitting in the sleigh, and it was she, grinned, and rushed away with Kai to her ice palace.
The bewitched Kai forgot both Gerda and his grandmother: after all, his heart turned to ice.

The Snow Queen

But Gerda did not forget Kai. She went in search of him: she got into a boat and swam wherever her eyes looked.
Soon the boat moored to an amazing garden. A witch came out to meet Gerda:
- What a charming girl!
Have you seen Kai? Gerda asked.
-No, I have not seen. Why do you need Kai? Stay, we'll live nicely with you!
The sorceress showed Gerda a magical garden with amazing flowers that could tell fairy tales. The sun always shone there and it was very beautiful, but Gerda went on to look for Kai.

The Snow Queen

On the way, she met an old raven.
“I saw Kai,” the raven said importantly. He now lives with the princess!
And Gerda went to the palace. But it turned out that it was not Kai!
She told the princess and the prince her story.
“Ah, poor thing!” cried the princess. - We'll help you.
Gerda was fed, given warm clothes and a golden carriage so that she would quickly find her Kai.

The Snow Queen

But then a misfortune happened: robbers attacked a rich carriage in the forest.
Gerda did not close her eyes at night. Two pigeons told her that they saw the Snow Queen's sleigh and Kai was sitting in it.
“She must have taken him to Lapland,” the pigeons cooed.
The chieftain's daughter, a little robber, wanted Gerda to stay with her, but when she found out her sad story, she was so moved that she decided to let Gerda go and ordered her beloved reindeer to take the girl to Lapland.
The deer ran day and night. He was already completely exhausted when, among the snows, the ice palace of the Snow Queen finally appeared.

The Snow Queen

Gerda cautiously stepped inside. The Snow Queen sat on the ice throne, and Kai played with ice at her feet. He did not recognize Gerda, and nothing trembled in his heart, because it was icy!
Then Gerda embraced him and wept.

The Snow Queen

Her tears were so hot that they melted Kai's icy heart.
“Gerda!” he exclaimed, as if waking up.
“Kai, my dear Kai!” Gerda gasped. - Did you recognise me! End of sorcery!
Now they were not afraid of the Snow Queen.
Kai and Gerda returned home and lived, as before, cheerfully and amicably.

Mirror and its fragments

Let's start! When we reach the end of our history, we will know more than we do now. So, once upon a time there was a troll, an evil, evil, real devil. Once he was in a particularly good mood: he made such a mirror in which everything good and beautiful was reduced further, and everything bad and ugly bulged out, became even more disgusting. The most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach in it, and the best of people looked like freaks, or it seemed as if they were standing upside down, but they had no bellies at all! The faces were distorted in such a way that it was impossible to recognize, and if anyone had a freckle, then be calm - it spread both on the nose and on the lips. And if a person had a good thought, it was reflected in the mirror with such an antics that the troll rolled with laughter, rejoicing at his cunning invention.

The students of the troll - and he had his own school - told everyone that a miracle had happened: now only, they said, you can see the whole world and people in their true light. They ran everywhere with a mirror, and soon there was not a single country, not a single person left. which would not be reflected in it in a distorted form.

Finally, they wanted to reach the sky. The higher they climbed, the more distorted the mirror was, so that they could hardly hold it in their hands. But now they flew very high, when suddenly the mirror was so twisted from grimaces that it escaped from their hands, flew to the ground and broke into millions, billions of fragments, and therefore even more troubles occurred. Some fragments, the size of a grain of sand, scattered across the wide world, fell into people's eyes, and so they remained there. And a person with such a shard in his eye began to see everything upside down or to notice only the bad in every thing - after all, each shard retained the property of the entire mirror. For some people, the fragments hit right in the heart, and this was the worst of all: the heart was made like a piece of ice. There were large ones among the fragments - they were inserted into window frames, and it was not worth looking at your good friends through these windows. Finally, there were also such fragments that went into glasses, and it was bad if such glasses were put on in order to see better and judge things correctly.

The evil troll was bursting with laughter - this idea amused him so much. And many more fragments flew around the world. Let's hear about them!

boy and girl

In a big city, where there are so many houses and people that not everyone has enough space even for a small garden, and therefore most of the inhabitants have to be content with indoor flowers in pots, there lived two poor children, and their garden was a little larger than a flower pot. They were not brother and sister, but they loved each other like brother and sister.

Their parents lived in closets under the roof in two neighboring houses. The roofs of the houses converged, and a gutter stretched between them. It was here that attic windows from each house looked at each other. One had only to step over the gutter, and one could get from one window to another.

My parents each had a large wooden box. they had herbs for seasonings, and small rose bushes, one in each box, growing luxuriantly. It occurred to the parents to put these boxes across the gutter, so that from one window to the other stretched like two flower beds. Peas descended from the boxes like green garlands, rose bushes peered through the windows and intertwined branches. Parents allowed the boy and girl to visit each other on the roof and sit on a bench under roses. How wonderful they played here!

And in winter, these joys ended. The windows were often completely frozen, but the children heated copper coins on the stove, applied them to the frozen glass, and immediately a wonderful round hole thawed, and a cheerful, affectionate eye peered into it - each looked out of his window, a boy and a girl, Kai and Gerda. In summer, they could find themselves visiting each other with one jump, and in winter, they had to first go down many, many steps down, and then climb the same number up. There was snow in the yard.

- It's white bees swarming! said the old grandmother.

“Do they also have a queen?” the boy asked. He knew real bees had one.

- There is! Grandma answered. - Snowflakes surround her in a dense swarm, but she is larger than all of them and never sits down on the ground, always rushing in a black cloud. Often at night she flies through the city streets and looks into the windows, which is why they are covered with frosty patterns, like flowers.

- Seen, seen! - the children said and believed that all this was the absolute truth.

“Can’t the Snow Queen enter here?” the girl asked.

- Just let him try! the boy answered. - I'll put her on a warm stove, so she will melt.

But the grandmother stroked his head and started talking about something else.

In the evening, when Kai was at home and almost completely undressed, about to go to bed, he climbed onto a chair by the window and looked into the circle thawed on the window pane. Snowflakes fluttered outside the window. One of them, the larger one, fell on the edge of the flower box and began to grow, grow, until at last it turned into a woman wrapped in the thinnest white tulle, woven, it seemed. from millions of snow stars. She was so lovely and tender, but made of ice, of dazzling sparkling ice, and yet alive! Her eyes shone like two clear stars, but there was neither warmth nor peace in them. She nodded to the boy and beckoned him with her hand. Kai got scared and jumped off the chair. And something like a big bird flashed past the window.

The next day it was clear to frosty, but then a thaw came, and then spring came. The sun shone, the greenery peeped through, the swallows built their nests. The windows were opened, and the children could again sit in their garden in the gutter above all the floors.

The roses were in full bloom that summer. Children sang, holding hands, kissed roses and rejoiced in the sun. Oh, what a wonderful summer it was, how good it was under the rose bushes, which seemed to bloom and bloom forever!

Once Kai and Gerda were sitting and looking at a book with pictures - animals and birds. The big clock tower struck five.

- Ai! Kai suddenly screamed. - I was stabbed right in the heart, and something got into my eye!

The girl wrapped her arm around his neck, he blinked frequently, but there seemed to be nothing in his eye.

“It must have jumped out,” he said. But it wasn't. These were just fragments of that devilish mirror, which we spoke about at the beginning.

Poor Kai! Now his heart should have become like a piece of ice. The pain is gone, but the fragments remain.

- What are you crying about? he asked Gerda. “It doesn’t hurt me at all! Fu, you are ugly! he suddenly shouted. — There is a worm that sharpens that rose. And she's completely crooked. What ugly roses! No better than boxes in which they stick out.

And he kicked the box with his foot and plucked both roses.

“Kai, what are you doing!” shouted Gerda, and he, seeing her fright, plucked another rose and ran away from dear little Gerda through his window.

If Gerda now brings him a book with pictures, he will say that these pictures are good only for babies: if the old grandmother tells something, she will find fault with her words. And then it will even come to the point that he will begin to mimic her walk, put on her glasses, speak in her voice. It came out very similar, and people laughed. Soon Kai learned to imitate all the neighbors. He was very good at showing off all their oddities and shortcomings, and people said:

"Amazingly capable little boy!" And the reason for everything was the fragments that hit him in the eye and in the heart. That is why he even mimicked dear little Gerda, and yet she loved him with all her heart.

And his amusements have now become completely different, so sophisticated. Once in the winter, when it was snowing, he came with a large magnifying glass and put the hem of his blue jacket under the snow.

“Look through the glass, Gerda,” he said. Each snowflake seemed much larger under the glass than it actually was, and looked like a magnificent flower or a ten-pointed star. It was so beautiful!

“See how cleverly done! Kai said. Much more interesting than real flowers! And what precision! Not a single wrong line! Ah, if only they had not melted!

A little later, Kai appeared in big mittens, with a sled behind his back, shouted in Gerda's very ear: “I was allowed to ride on a large area with other boys!” - And running.

There were a lot of children on the square. Those who were bolder tied their sledges to peasant sledges and rolled far, far away. It was kind of fun. In the midst of the fun, a large sleigh, painted white, appeared on the square. In them sat someone wrapped in a white fur coat and in the same hat. The sleigh circled the square twice. Kai quickly tied his sled to them and rolled. The big sleigh sped away faster, then turned off the square into an alley. The man sitting in them turned around and nodded affably to Kai, as if he were an acquaintance. Kai several times tried to untie his sled, but the man in the fur coat kept nodding to him, and he continued to follow him.

So they got out of the city gates. The snow suddenly fell in flakes, and it became dark, even if you gouged out your eye. The boy hurriedly let go of the rope, which caught on a large sledge, but his sledge seemed to stick to it and continued to rush along in a whirlwind. Kai screamed loudly - no one heard him. The snow was falling, the sleds raced, diving into snowdrifts, jumping over hedges and ditches. Kai was trembling.

The snowflakes kept growing and finally turned into big white chickens. Suddenly they scattered to the sides, the big sledge stopped, and the man sitting in it stood up. It was a tall, slender, dazzling white woman - the Snow Queen; and her fur coat and hat were made of snow.

- Nice ride! - she said. - But you are completely cold - get into my fur coat!

She put the boy in the sleigh, wrapped him in her bearskin coat. Kai sank into a snowdrift.

"Are you still cold?" she asked and kissed him on the forehead.

Wu! Her kiss was colder than ice, it pierced right through it and reached the very heart, and it was already half ice. It seemed to Kai that a little more - and he would die ... But only for a minute, and then, on the contrary, he felt so good that he even completely stopped feeling cold.

- My sleds! Don't forget my sled! he said.

The sled was tied on the back of one of the white chickens, and she flew with them after the big sled. The Snow Queen kissed Kai again, and he forgot Gerda, and his grandmother, and all the household.

"I won't kiss you again," she said. "I'll kiss you to death."

Kai looked at her. How good she was! He could not imagine a smarter and prettier face. Now she doesn't. seemed to him icy, as on that occasion when she sat outside the window and nodded to him.

He was not at all afraid of her and told her that he knew all four operations of arithmetic, and even with fractions, he knew how many square miles and inhabitants each country, and she only smiled in response. And then it seemed to him that in fact he knew very little.

At the same moment, the Snow Queen soared with him onto a black cloud. The storm howled and groaned as if singing old songs; they flew over forests and lakes, over seas and land; cold winds blew under them, wolves howled, snow sparkled, black crows flew with a cry, and above them shone a large clear moon. Kai looked at him all the long, long winter night, and during the day he fell asleep at the feet of the Snow Queen.

Flower garden of a woman who knew how to conjure

And what happened to Gerda when Kai did not return? Where did he go? No one knew this, no one could give an answer.

The boys said only that they saw him tying his sledge to a large magnificent sledge, which then turned into an alley and drove out of the city gates.

Many tears were shed over him, Gerda wept bitterly and for a long time. Finally they decided that Kai had died, drowned in the river that flowed outside the city. The dark winter days dragged on for a long time.

But then spring came, the sun came out.

Kai is dead and will never come back! Gerda said.

- I do not believe! Sunlight answered.

He is dead and will never come back! she repeated to the swallows.

- We do not believe! they answered.

In the end, Gerda herself stopped believing it.

“I’ll put on my new red shoes (Kai has never seen them before), she said one morning, “and I’ll go and ask about him by the river.”

It was still very early. She kissed her sleeping grandmother, put on her red shoes and ran all alone out of town, straight to the river.

“Is it true that you took my sworn brother?” Gerda asked. "I'll give you my red shoes if you give it back to me!"

And it seemed to the girl that the waves somehow strangely nod to her. Then she took off her red shoes - the most precious thing she had - and threw them into the river. But they fell right on the shore, and the waves immediately carried them back - as if the river did not want to take her jewel from the girl, since she could not return Kai to her. The girl, thinking that she had not thrown her shoes far enough, climbed into the boat, which was rocking in the reeds, stood on the very edge of the stern and again threw her shoes into the water. The boat was not tied and from its push moved away from the shore. The girl wanted to jump ashore as soon as possible, but while she was making her way from stern to bow, the boat had already completely sailed away and was quickly rushing downstream.

Gerda was terribly frightened and began to cry and scream, but no one except the sparrows heard her. The sparrows, on the other hand, could not transfer her to land, and only flew after her along the coast and chirped, as if wishing to console her:

- We are here! We are here!

“Maybe the river is taking me to Kai?” - thought Gerda, cheered up, got to her feet and admired the beautiful green shores for a long, long time.

But then she sailed to a large cherry orchard, in which a house huddled under a thatched roof, with red and blue panes in the windows. Two wooden soldiers stood at the door and saluted all who passed by. Gerda screamed at them - she mistook them for living ones - but they, of course, did not answer her. So she swam even closer to them, the boat approached almost to the very shore, and the girl screamed even louder. An old, old woman came out of the house with a stick, in a big straw hat painted with wonderful flowers.

“Oh, you poor child! said the old woman. “And how did you get on such a big fast river and get so far?”

With these words, the old woman entered the water, hooked the boat with a stick, pulled it to the shore and landed Gerda.

Gerda was glad, dear, that she finally found herself on land, although she was afraid of an unfamiliar old woman.

“Well, let’s go, but tell me who you are and how you got here,” said the old woman.

Gerda began to tell her about everything, and the old woman shook her head and repeated: “Hm! Hm!” When the girl had finished, she asked the old woman if she had seen Kai. She replied that he had not yet passed here, but, surely, he would pass, so there was nothing to grieve about yet, let Gerda better taste the cherries and admire the flowers that grow in the garden: they are more beautiful than in any picture book, and that’s it. know how to tell stories. Then the old woman took Gerda by the hand, took her to her house and locked the door with a key.

The windows were high from the floor and all of multi-colored - red, blue and yellow - glass; from this the room itself was illuminated by some amazing iridescent light. There was a basket of wonderful cherries on the table, and Gerda could eat as many of them as she liked. And while she ate, the old woman combed her hair with a golden comb. Her hair curled in curls and a golden glow surrounded the sweet, friendly, round, like a rose, face of a girl.

"I've wanted to have such a pretty girl for a long time!" said the old woman. “You’ll see how well we’ll live with you!”

And she continued to comb the girl's curls, and the longer she combed, the more Gerda forgot her named brother Kai - the old woman knew how to conjure. Only she was not an evil sorceress and conjured only occasionally, for her own pleasure; now she really wanted to keep Gerda. And so she went into the garden, touched with a stick all the rose bushes, and as they stood in full bloom, they all went deep into the ground, and there was no trace of them. The old woman was afraid that Gerda, at the sight of these roses, would remember her own, and then Kaya and run away from her.

Then the old woman took Gerda to the flower garden. Oh, what a fragrance there was, what beauty: a variety of flowers, and for every season! In all the world there would be no picture book more colorful, more beautiful than this flower garden. Gerda jumped for joy and played among the flowers until the sun went down behind the tall cherry trees. Then they put her in a wonderful bed with red silk feather beds stuffed with blue violets. The girl fell asleep, and she had dreams that only a queen sees on her wedding day.

The next day, Gerda was again allowed to play in the wonderful flower garden in the sun. So many days passed. Gerda now knew every flower in the garden, but no matter how many there were, it still seemed to her that something was missing, but which one? And once she sat and looked at the old woman's straw hat, painted with flowers, and the most beautiful of them was a rose - the old woman forgot to erase it when she sent the living roses underground. That's what distraction means!

- How! Are there any roses here? - said Gerda, and immediately ran into the garden, looking for them, looking, but she did not find them.

Then the girl sank to the ground and wept. Warm tears fell just on the spot where one of the rose bushes used to stand, and as soon as they moistened the ground, the bush instantly grew out of it, as blooming as before.

Gerda wrapped her arms around him, began to kiss the roses and remembered those wonderful roses that bloomed at her house, and at the same time about Kai.

- How I hesitated! the girl said. “I have to look for Kai! .. You don’t know where he is?” she asked the roses. Is it true that he died and will not return again?

He didn't die! answered the roses. “We were underground, where all the dead lie, but Kai was not among them.

- Thank you! - said Gerda and went to other flowers, looked into their cups and asked: - Do you know where Kai is?

But each flower basked in the sun and thought only of its own fairy tale or story. Gerda heard a lot of them, but not a single one said a word about Kai.

Then Gerda went to a dandelion shining in the brilliant green grass.

“You little bright sun! Gerda told him. “Tell me, do you know where I can look for my named brother?”

Dandelion shone even brighter and looked at the girl. What song did he sing to her? Alas! And in this song not a word was said about Kai!

— It was the first spring day, the sun was warm and shone so friendly on the small courtyard. Its rays glided over the white wall of the neighboring house, and near the very wall peeped the first yellow flower, it sparkled in the sun, like gold. An old grandmother came out to sit in the yard. Here her granddaughter, a poor servant, came from among the guests and kissed the old woman. A girl's kiss is more precious than gold - it comes straight from the heart. Gold on her lips, gold in her heart, gold in the sky in the morning! That's all! Dandelion said.

“My poor grandmother! Gerda sighed. “That's right, she misses me and grieves as she grieved for Kai. But I'll be back soon and bring it with me. There is nothing more to ask the flowers - you won’t get any sense from them, they know what they say! And she ran to the end of the garden.

The door was locked, but Gerda shook the rusty bolt for so long that it gave way, the door opened, and the girl, barefooted, began to run along the road. She looked back three times, but no one pursued her.

Finally she got tired, sat down on a stone and looked around: the summer had already passed, it was late autumn in the yard. Only in the wonderful garden of the old woman, where the sun always shone and flowers of all seasons bloomed, this was not noticeable.

- God! How I lingered! After all, autumn is in the yard! There is no time for rest! said Gerda, and set off again.

Oh, how her poor tired legs ached! How cold and damp it was around! The long leaves on the willows were completely yellowed, the mist settled on them in large drops and flowed down to the ground; the leaves fell off like that. Only one blackthorn stood all covered with astringent, tart berries. How gray and dreary the whole world seemed!

Prince and Princess

Gerda had to sit down again to rest. A large raven was hopping in the snow right in front of her. He looked at the girl for a long time, nodding his head to her, and finally said:

- Kar-kar! Hello!

He could not speak more humanly, but he wished the girl well and asked her where she was wandering in the wide world alone. What is “alone”, Gerda knew very well, she experienced it herself. Having told the raven all her life, the girl asked if he had seen Kai.

Raven shook his head thoughtfully and said:

- May be! May be!

- How? Truth? the girl exclaimed, and almost strangled the raven, she kissed him so hard.

- Quiet, quiet! said the raven. “I think it was your Kai. But now he must have forgotten you and his princess!

Does he live with the princess? Gerda asked.

“Now listen,” said the raven. “But it’s terribly difficult for me to speak your way. Now, if you understood like a crow, I would tell you about everything much better.

“No, they didn’t teach me that,” said Gerda. - What a pity!

“Nothing,” said the raven. “I’ll tell you what I can, even if it’s bad. And he told everything he knew.

“In the kingdom where you and I are, there is a princess who is so smart that it’s impossible to say! I read all the newspapers in the world and forgot everything I read in them - what a clever girl! One day she sits on the throne - and there's not much fun in it, as people say - and sings a song: "Why shouldn't I get married?" “But indeed!” she thought, and she wanted to get married. But for her husband, she wanted to choose a man who could answer when spoken to, and not someone who could only put on airs - it's so boring! And now, with a drumbeat, all the ladies of the court are summoned, and the will of the princess is announced to them. They were all so happy! “That's what we like! - they say. “We’ve been thinking about this ourselves recently!” All this is true! added the raven. - I have a bride at court - a tame crow, from her I know all this.

The next day all the newspapers came out with a border of hearts and with the monograms of the princess. It was announced in the newspapers that every young man of good appearance could come to the palace and talk with the princess; the one who will behave at ease, as at home, and will be more eloquent than everyone else, the princess will choose as her husband. Yes Yes! repeated the raven. “All this is as true as the fact that I am sitting here in front of you. The people poured into the palace in droves, there was a crush and crush, but all to no avail either on the first or on the second day. On the street, all the suitors speak perfectly, but as soon as they step over the palace threshold, see the guards in silver and footmen in gold and enter the huge, light-filled halls, they are dumbfounded. They will approach the throne where the princess sits, and repeat her own words after her, but she did not need it at all. Well, it was as if they had spoiled them, drugged them with dope! And they will go out the gate - they will again find the gift of words. From the very gates to the doors stretched a long, long tail of suitors. I have been there and seen it.

- Well, what about Kai, Kai? Gerda asked. - When did he come? And he came to marry?

— Wait! Wait! Here we have come to it! On the third day, a little man appeared, not in a carriage, not on horseback, but simply on foot, and straight to the palace. Eyes shine like yours, hair is long, only poorly dressed.

“It’s Kai! Gerda rejoiced. - I found him! And she clapped her hands.

“He had a knapsack on his back,” continued the raven.

— No, it must have been his sled! Gerda said. — He left the house with a sled.

- Very likely! said the raven. “I didn't look too hard. So, my fiancee told how he entered the palace gates and saw the guards in silver, and along the entire staircase the lackeys in gold, he was not at all embarrassed, he only nodded his head and said: “It must be boring to stand here on the stairs, I’ll go in “I’d rather go to the rooms!” And all the halls are filled with light. The Privy Councilors and their Excellencies are walking about without boots, carrying golden dishes - there is nowhere more solemn! His boots creak terribly, but he doesn't care.

It must be Kai! exclaimed Gerda. — I know he was wearing new boots. I myself heard how they creaked when he came to his grandmother.

“Yes, they did creak in order,” continued the raven. But he boldly approached the princess. She was sitting on a pearl the size of a spinning wheel, and all around stood court ladies with their maids and maids of maids and gentlemen with servants and servants of servants, and those again had servants. The closer someone stood to the door, the higher his nose turned up. It was impossible even to look at the servant of the servant, attending the servant and standing in the very doorway, without trembling - he was so important!

- That's fear! Gerda said. Did Kai marry the princess after all?

“If I weren’t a raven, I would have married her myself, even though I’m engaged. He struck up a conversation with the princess and spoke no worse than I did in crows - so at least my tame bride told me. He behaved very freely and sweetly and declared that he had come not to woo, but only to listen to the intelligent speeches of the princess. Well, he liked her, and she liked him too.

Yes, it's Kai! Gerda said. - He's so smart! He knew all four operations of arithmetic, and even with fractions! Oh, take me to the palace!

“Easy to say,” replied the raven, “hard to do.” Wait, I'll talk to my fiancee, she'll come up with something and advise us. Do you think that they will let you into the palace right like that? Why, they don't let girls like that in!

- They'll let me in! Gerda said. “When Kai hears that I am here, he will immediately come running after me.

“Wait for me here by the grate,” said the raven, shook its head and flew away.

He returned quite late in the evening and croaked:

- Kar, Kar! My bride sends you a thousand bows and this loaf. She stole it in the kitchen - there are a lot of them, and you must be hungry! .. Well, you won’t get into the palace: you’re barefoot - the guards in silver and the lackeys in gold will never let you through. But don't cry, you'll still get there. My fiancee knows how to get into the princess's bedroom from the back door and where to get the key.

And so they entered the garden, went along the long avenues, where autumn leaves fell one after another, and when the lights in the palace went out, the raven led the girl through the half-open door.

Oh, how Gerda's heart beat with fear and impatience! It was as if she was going to do something bad, and she only wanted to know if her Kai was here! Yes, yes, he is right here! Gerda so vividly imagined his intelligent eyes, long hair, and how he smiled at her when they used to sit side by side under the rose bushes. And how happy he will be now when he sees her, hears what a long journey she decided on for him, learns how all the household grieved for him! Oh, she was just beside herself with fear and joy!

But here they are on the landing of the stairs. A lamp burned on the closet, and a tame crow sat on the floor and looked around. Gerda sat down and bowed, as her grandmother taught.

“My fiancé told me so many good things about you, young lady! said the tame crow. “And your life is also very touching!” Would you like to take a lamp, and I will go ahead. We will take the straight road, we will meet no one here.

“But it seems to me that someone is following us,” said Gerda, and at the same moment some shadows rushed past her with a slight noise: horses with waving manes and thin legs, hunters, ladies and gentlemen on horseback.

- These are dreams! said the tame crow. “They come here to let the minds of high people go hunting. So much the better for us, it will be more convenient to consider the sleeping ones.

Then they entered the first room, where the walls were upholstered in pink satin woven with flowers. Dreams flashed past the girl again, but so quickly that she did not have time to see the riders. One room was more magnificent than the other, so there was something to be confused about. Finally they reached the bedroom. The ceiling looked like the top of a huge palm tree with precious crystal leaves; from the middle of it descended a thick golden stalk, on which hung two beds in the form of lilies. One was white, the princess slept in it, the other was red, and Gerda hoped to find Kai in it. The girl slightly bent one of the red petals and saw a dark blond nape. It's Kai! She called him by name loudly and held the lamp close to his face. Dreams rushed away with noise; the prince woke up and turned his head... Ah, it wasn't Kai!

The prince looked like him only from the back of his head, but he was just as young and handsome. A princess looked out of a white lily and asked what happened. Gerda wept and told her whole story, mentioning also what the ravens had done for her.

- Oh, you poor thing! - said the prince and princess, praised the ravens, announced that they were not at all angry with them - only let them not do this in the future - and even wanted to reward them.

Do you want to be free birds? the princess asked. “Or do you want to take the position of court ravens, fully supported from kitchen leftovers?”

Raven and crow bowed and asked for positions at court. They thought of old age and said:

“It’s good to have a sure piece of bread in old age!”

The prince got up and gave his bed to Gerda - there was nothing more he could do for her yet. And she folded her hands and thought: “How kind all people and animals are!” She closed her eyes and fell asleep sweetly. The dreams again flew into the bedroom, but now they were carrying Kai on a small sleigh, who was nodding his head to Gerda. Alas, it was all just a dream and disappeared as soon as the girl woke up.

The next day she was dressed from head to toe in silk and velvet and allowed to remain in the palace as long as she wished.

The girl could live and live happily ever after, but she stayed only a few days and began to ask for a cart with a horse and a pair of shoes - she again wanted to start looking for her named brother in the wide world.

They gave her shoes, and a muff, and a wonderful dress, and when she said goodbye to everyone, a carriage of pure gold drove up to the gate, with the coats of arms of the prince and princess shining like stars: the coachman, footmen, postilions - they gave her postilions too - small golden crowns flaunted on their heads.

The prince and princess themselves put Gerda into the carriage and wished her a happy journey.

The forest raven, who had already managed to get married, accompanied the girl for the first three miles and sat in the carriage next to her - he could not ride, sitting with his back to the horses. A tame crow sat on the gate and flapped its wings. She did not go to see Gerda off because she had suffered from headaches ever since she got a position at court and ate too much. The carriage was crammed full of sugar pretzels, and the box under the seat was full of fruit and gingerbread.

- Goodbye! Goodbye! shouted the prince and princess.

Gerda began to cry, and so did the crow. Three miles later the raven said goodbye to the girl. It was a hard parting! The raven flew up into the tree and flapped its black wings until the carriage, shining like the sun, disappeared from view.

Little Robber

Here Gerda entered the dark forest in which the robbers lived; the carriage burned like a fever, it cut the eyes of the robbers, and they simply could not bear it.

- Gold! Gold! they shouted, seizing the horses by the bridle, killed the little postilions, the coachman and the servants, and pulled Gerda out of the carriage.

“Look, what a pretty, fat little one! Nuts fed! - said the old robber woman with a long stiff beard and shaggy, hanging eyebrows. - Fatty, what is your lamb! Well, what will it taste like?

And she pulled out a sharp, shining knife. Horrible!

- Ai! she suddenly cried out: she was bitten on the ear by her own daughter, who was sitting behind her and was so unbridled and self-willed that it was simply a pleasure. "Oh, you mean girl! the mother screamed, but did not have time to kill Gerda.

“She will play with me,” said the little robber. “She will give me her muff, her pretty dress, and sleep with me in my bed.

And the girl again bit her mother so that she jumped and spun on the spot. The robbers laughed.

- Look how he dances with his girl!

- I want a carriage! cried the little robber girl, and insisted on her own - she was terribly spoiled and stubborn.

They got into the carriage with Gerda and rushed over the stumps and bumps into the thicket of the forest.

The little robber was as tall as Gerdu, but stronger, broader in the shoulders and much darker. Her eyes were completely black, but somehow sad. She hugged Gerda and said:

"They won't kill you until I'm angry with you." Are you a princess?

- No, - the girl answered and told what she had to experience and how she loves Kai.

The little robber looked at her seriously, nodded slightly, and said:

“They won’t kill you even if I get angry with you—I’d rather kill you myself!”

And she wiped away Gerda's tears, and then hid both her hands in her pretty soft warm muff.

Here the carriage stopped: they drove into the courtyard of the robber's castle.

He was covered in huge cracks; crows and crows flew out of them. Huge bulldogs jumped out from somewhere, it seemed that each of them could not swallow a person, but they only jumped high and did not even bark - it was forbidden. A fire was burning in the middle of a huge hall with dilapidated, soot-covered walls and a stone floor. The smoke rose to the ceiling and had to find its own way out. Over the fire, soup was boiling in a huge cauldron, and hares and rabbits were roasting on skewers.

“You will sleep with me right here, near my little menagerie,” said the little robber girl to Gerda.

The girls were fed and watered, and they went to their corner, where straw was laid out, covered with carpets. More than a hundred pigeons sat on poles higher up. They all seemed to be asleep, but when the girls approached, they stirred slightly.

- All mine! said the little robber girl, seizing one of the pigeons by the legs and shaking it so that it fluttered its wings. - Kiss him! she shouted and poked the dove in Gerda's face. “And here sit the forest crooks,” she continued, pointing to two pigeons sitting in a small depression in the wall, behind a wooden grate. “These two are woodland crooks. They must be kept locked up, otherwise they will fly away quickly! And here is my dear old man! And the girl pulled by the horns of a reindeer tied to the wall in a shiny copper collar. “He, too, must be kept on a leash, otherwise he will run away!” Every evening I tickle him under the neck with my sharp knife - he is scared to death of it.

With these words, the little robber pulled out a long knife from a crevice in the wall and ran it along the deer's neck. The poor animal bucked, and the girl laughed and dragged Gerda to the bed.

“Are you really sleeping with a knife?” Gerda asked her.

- Always! answered the little robber. — You never know what could happen! Well, tell me again about Kai and how you set out to wander the wide world.

Gerda told. Caged wood pigeons cooed softly; the other pigeons were already asleep. The little robber wrapped one arm around Gerda's neck - she had a knife in the other - and began to snore, but Gerda could not close her eyes, not knowing whether they would kill her or let her live. Suddenly the wood pigeons cooed:

— Kurr! Kurr! We saw Kai! A white hen carried his sled on her back, and he sat in the Snow Queen's sleigh. They flew over the forest when we chicks were still in the nest. She breathed on us, and everyone died except for the two of us. Kurr! Kurr!

- What. you speak! exclaimed Gerda. Where did the Snow Queen go? Do you know?

- Probably to Lapland - because there is eternal snow and ice. Ask the reindeer what is leashed here.

— Yes, there is eternal snow and ice. Wonder how good! said the reindeer. - There you jump at will on the huge sparkling plains. The Snow Queen's summer tent is set up there, and her permanent palaces are at the North Pole, on the island of Svalbard.

— Oh Kai, my dear Kai! Gerda sighed.

“Lie still,” said the little robber. "I'm not going to stab you with a knife!"

In the morning Gerda told her what she had heard from wood pigeons. The little robber girl looked seriously at Gerda, nodded her head and said:

- Well, so be it! .. Do you know where Lapland is? she then asked the reindeer.

“Who knows if not me!” - answered the deer, and his eyes sparkled. - There I was born and raised, there I jumped on the snowy plains.

“So listen,” said the little robber girl to Gerda. “You see, all of us have left, there is only one mother at home;

after a while she will take a sip from a large bottle and take a nap, then I will do something for you.

And so the old woman took a sip from her bottle and began to snore, and the little robber went up to the reindeer and said:

“We could still make fun of you for a long time!” You're too hilarious to be tickled with a sharp knife. Well, so be it! I will untie you and set you free. You can run to your Lapland, but in return you must take this girl to the Snow Queen's palace - her named brother is there. Surely you heard what she said? She spoke loudly, and you always have ears on top of your head.

The reindeer jumped for joy. And the little robber put Gerda on him, tied her tightly for fidelity, and even slipped a soft pillow under her to make it more comfortable for her to sit.

“So be it,” she said then, “take back your fur boots—it will be cold!” And I'll leave the clutch for myself, it hurts good. But I won’t let you freeze: here are my mother’s huge mittens, they will reach you to the very elbows. Put your hands in them! Well, now you have hands like my ugly mother.

Gerda wept for joy.

"I can't stand it when they whine!" said the little robber. “Now you should be happy. Here's two more loaves and a ham for you so you don't have to go hungry.

Both were tied to a deer. Then the little robber opened the door, lured the dogs into the house, cut the rope with which the deer was tied with her sharp knife, and said to him:

- Well, live! Yes, look at the girl. Gerda held out both hands to the little robber in huge mittens and said goodbye to her. The reindeer set off at full speed through the stumps and bumps through the forest, through the swamps and steppes. Wolves howled, crows croaked.

Phew! Phew! — was suddenly heard from the sky, and it seemed to sneeze with fire.

- Here is my native northern lights! the deer said. - Look how it burns.

Lapland and Finnish

The deer stopped at a miserable shack. The roof went down to the ground, and the door was so low that people had to crawl through it on all fours.

At home there was an old Lapland woman who was frying fish by the light of a fat lamp. The reindeer told the Laplander the whole story of Gerda, but first he told his own - it seemed to him much more important.

Gerda was so numb from the cold that she could not speak.

“Oh, you poor fellows! said the Laplander. “You still have a long way to go!” You'll have to walk a hundred odd miles before you get to Finland, where the Snow Queen lives in her country house and lights blue sparklers every evening. I will write a few words on dried cod - I have no paper - and you will carry the message to the Finnish woman who lives in those places and will be able to teach you what to do better than I can.

When Gerda warmed up, ate and drank, the Laplander wrote a few words on dried cod, ordered Gerda to take good care of her, then tied the girl to the back of a deer, and he rushed off again.

Phew! Phew! - was heard again from the sky, and it began to throw out pillars of wonderful blue flame. So the deer ran with Gerda to Finland and knocked on the Finnish chimney - she didn’t even have doors.

Well, the heat was in her home! The Finn herself, a short fat woman, went about half-naked. She quickly pulled off Gerda's dress, mittens and boots, otherwise the girl would be hot, put a piece of ice on the reindeer's head and then began to read what was written on the dried cod.

She read everything from word to word three times, until she memorized it, and then she put the cod into the cauldron - after all, the fish was good for food, and nothing was wasted with the Finn.

Then the deer told first his story, and then the story of Gerda. Finca blinked her intelligent eyes, but did not say a word.

“You are such a wise woman…” said the deer. “Won’t you make a drink for the girl that would give her the strength of twelve heroes?” Then she would have defeated the Snow Queen!

- The strength of twelve heroes! Finn said. — Is there much use in that!

With these words, she took a large leather scroll from the shelf and unfolded it: it was covered all over with some amazing writing.

The deer again began to ask for Gerda, and Gerda herself looked at the Finn with such pleading eyes full of tears that she blinked again, took the deer aside and, changing the ice on his head, whispered:

- Kai is indeed with the Snow Queen, but he is quite satisfied and thinks that he cannot be better anywhere. The reason for everything is the fragments of the mirror that sit in his heart and in his eye. They must be removed, otherwise the Snow Queen will retain her power over him.

“But can’t you give Gerda something that will make her stronger than everyone else?”

- Stronger than it is, I can not make it. Don't you see how great her power is? Don't you see that both people and animals serve her? After all, she walked around half the world barefoot! It is not for us to borrow her strength, her strength is in her heart, in the fact that she is an innocent sweet child. If she herself cannot penetrate into the halls of the Snow Queen and extract a shard from Kai's heart, then we will not help her even more! Two miles from here begins the Snow Queen's garden. Take the girl there, let her down by a large bush sprinkled with red berries, and, without delay, come back.

With these words, the Finnish girl put Gerda on the back of a deer, and he rushed to run as fast as he could.

- Oh, I'm without warm boots! Hey, I'm not wearing gloves! cried Gerda, finding herself in the cold.

But the deer did not dare to stop until he reached a bush with red berries. Then he let the girl down, kissed her on the lips, and large, shining tears rolled down his cheeks. Then he shot back like an arrow.

The poor girl was left alone in the bitter cold, without shoes, without mittens.

She ran forward as fast as she could. A whole regiment of snow flakes rushed towards her, but they did not fall from the sky - the sky was completely clear, and the northern lights blazed in it - no, they ran along the ground straight at Gerda and became larger and larger.

Gerda remembered the big beautiful flakes under the magnifying glass, but these were much bigger, scarier and all alive.

These were the forward sentinel troops of the Snow Queen.

Some resembled large ugly hedgehogs, others - hundred-headed snakes, others - fat bear cubs with tousled hair. But they all sparkled with the same whiteness, they were all living snowflakes.

However, Gerda boldly walked on and on and finally reached the halls of the Snow Queen.

Let's see what happened to Kai at that time. He did not think about Gerda, and least of all about the fact that she was so close to him.

What happened in the halls of the Snow Queen and what happened next

The walls of the halls were blizzards, the windows and doors were violent winds. More than a hundred halls stretched here one after the other as a blizzard swept them. All of them were illuminated by the northern lights, and the largest one stretched for many, many miles. How cold, how deserted it was in those white, brightly shining halls! Fun never came here. Bear balls have never been held here with dances to the music of the storm, at which polar bears could distinguish themselves by grace and the ability to walk on their hind legs; games of cards with quarrels and fights were never drawn up, little white chanterelle gossips did not converge for a conversation over a cup of coffee.

Cold, deserted, grandiose! The northern lights flashed and burned so regularly that it was possible to calculate exactly at what minute the light would increase and at what time it would fade. In the middle of the largest deserted snow hall was a frozen lake. The ice cracked on it into a thousand pieces, so identical and regular that it seemed like some kind of trick. In the middle of the lake sat the Snow Queen when she was at home, saying that she was sitting on the mirror of the mind; in her opinion, it was the only and best mirror in the world.

Kai turned completely blue, almost turned black from the cold, but did not notice this - the kisses of the Snow Queen made him insensitive to the cold, and his very heart was like a piece of ice. Kai fiddled with flat, pointed ice floes, laying them in all sorts of frets. After all, there is such a game - folding figures from wooden planks - which is called the Chinese puzzle. So Kai also folded various intricate figures, only from ice floes, and this was called an icy mind game. In his eyes, these figures were a marvel of art, and folding them was an occupation of paramount importance. This was due to the fact that a fragment of a magic mirror sat in his eye.

He also put together such figures from which whole words were obtained, but he could not put together what he especially wanted - the word "eternity". The Snow Queen said to him: "If you add this word, you will be your own master, and I will give you all the world and a pair of new skates." But he couldn't put it down.

“Now I will fly to warmer climes,” said the Snow Queen. — I'll look into the black cauldrons.

So she called the craters of the fire-breathing mountains - Etna and Vesuvius.

- I'll whiten them a little. It's good for lemons and grapes.

She flew away, and Kai was left alone in the boundless deserted hall, looking at the ice floes and thinking, thinking, so that his head was cracking. He sat there, so pale, motionless, as if lifeless. You might think he was completely cold.

At this time, Gerda entered the huge gate, which was the violent winds. And before her the winds subsided, as if asleep. She entered a huge deserted ice hall and saw Kai. She immediately recognized him, threw herself on his neck, hugged him tightly and exclaimed:

— Kai, my dear Kai! Finally I found you!

But he sat still the same motionless and cold. And then Gerda wept; her hot tears fell on his chest, penetrated into his heart, melted the ice crust, melted the shard. Kai looked at Gerda and suddenly burst into tears and cried so hard that the shard flowed out of his eye along with his tears. Then he recognized Gerda and was delighted:

— Gerda! Dear Gerda! Where have you been for so long? Where was I myself? And he looked around. How cold it is here, deserted!

And he clung tightly to Gerda. And she laughed and cried with joy. And it was so wonderful that even the ice floes began to dance, and when they got tired, they lay down and made up the very word that the Snow Queen asked Kai to compose. Having folded it, he could become his own master, and even receive from her a gift of the whole world and a pair of new skates.

Gerda kissed Kai on both cheeks, and they again blushed like roses; kissed his eyes, and they shone; kissed his hands and feet, and he again became vigorous and healthy.

The Snow Queen could return at any time—his vacation card lay there, written in glittering ice letters.

Kai and Gerda left the ice halls hand in hand. They walked and talked about their grandmother, about the roses that bloomed in their garden, and before them the violent winds subsided, the sun peeped through. And when they reached the bush with red berries, the reindeer was already waiting for them.

Kai and Gerda went first to the Finn, warmed up with her and found out the way home, and then to the Lapland. She sewed them a new dress, repaired her sleigh and went to see them off.

The deer also accompanied the young travelers up to the very border of Lapland, where the first greenery was already breaking through. Here Kai and Gerda said goodbye to him and the Laplander.

Here is the forest in front of them. The first birds sang, the trees were covered with green buds. A young girl in a bright red cap with pistols in her belt rode out of the forest to meet the travelers on a magnificent horse.

Gerda immediately recognized both the horse - it had once been harnessed to a golden carriage - and the girl. It was a little robber.

She also recognized Gerda. That was joy!

- Look, you tramp! she said to Kai. “I would like to know if you are worthy of being followed to the ends of the earth?”

But Gerda patted her on the cheek and asked about the prince and princess.

“They have gone to foreign lands,” answered the young robber.

- And the raven? Gerda asked.

- The forest raven is dead; the tame crow was left a widow, walks with black hair on its leg and complains about fate. But all this is nothing, but you better tell me what happened to you and how you found him.

Gerda and Kai told her about everything.

Well, that's the end of the story! - said the young robber, shook hands with them and promised to visit them if she ever came to them in the city.

Then she went on her way, and Kai and Gerda went on theirs.

They walked, and spring flowers bloomed on their way, the grass turned green. Then the bells rang out, and they recognized the bell towers of their native city. They climbed the familiar stairs and entered the room, where everything was the same as before: the clock said “tick-tock”, the hands moved along the dial. But, passing through the low door, they noticed that they had become quite adults. Blooming rose bushes peered through the open window from the roof; right there were their highchairs. Kai and Gerda each sat on their own, took each other's hands, and the cold desert splendor of the halls of the Snow Queen was forgotten like a heavy dream.

So they sat side by side, both already adults, but children in heart and soul, and it was summer outside, a warm, fertile summer.