Stories from Hans Andersen | Page 3

both children, and then they knew it
was true.
'Can the Snow Queen come in here?' asked the little girl.
'Just let her come,' said the boy, 'and I will put her on the stove, where
she will melt.'
But the grandmother smoothed his hair and told him more stories.
In the evening when little Kay was at home and half undressed, he
crept up on to the chair by the window, and peeped out of the little hole.
A few snow-flakes were falling, and one of these, the biggest, remained
on the edge of the window-box. It grew bigger and bigger, till it
became the figure of a woman, dressed in the finest white gauze, which
appeared to be made of millions of starry flakes. She was delicately
lovely, but all ice, glittering, dazzling ice. Still she was alive, her eyes
shone like two bright stars, but there was no rest or peace in them. She
nodded to the window and waved her hand. The little boy was
frightened and jumped down off the chair, and then he fancied that a
big bird flew past the window.
The next day was bright and frosty, and then came the thaw--and after
that the spring. The sun shone, green buds began to appear, the
swallows built their nests, and people began to open their windows.
The little children began to play in their garden on the roof again. The
roses were in splendid bloom that summer; the little girl had learnt a
hymn, and there was something in it about roses, and that made her
think of her own. She sang it to the little boy, and then he sang it with
her--
'Where roses deck the flowery vale, There, Infant Jesus, we thee hail!'
The children took each other by the hands, kissed the roses, and
rejoiced in God's bright sunshine, and spoke to it as if the Child Jesus
were there. What lovely summer days they were, and how delightful it
was to sit out under the fresh rose-trees, which seemed never tired of
blooming.

Kay and Gerda were looking at a picture book of birds and animals one
day--it had just struck five by the church clock--when Kay said, 'Oh,
something struck my heart, and I have got something in my eye!'
The little girl put her arms round his neck, he blinked his eye; there was
nothing to be seen.
'I believe it is gone,' he said; but it was not gone. It was one of those
very grains of glass from the mirror, the magic mirror. You remember
that horrid mirror, in which all good and great things reflected in it
became small and mean, while the bad things were magnified, and
every flaw became very apparent.
Poor Kay! a grain of it had gone straight to his heart, and would soon
turn it to a lump of ice. He did not feel it any more, but it was still
there.
'Why do you cry?' he asked; 'it makes you look ugly; there's nothing the
matter with me. How horrid!' he suddenly cried; 'there's a worm in that
rose, and that one is quite crooked; after all, they are nasty roses, and so
are the boxes they are growing in!' He kicked the box and broke off two
of the roses.
'What are you doing, Kay?' cried the little girl. When he saw her alarm,
he broke off another rose, and then ran in by his own window, and left
dear little Gerda alone.
When she next got out the picture book he said it was only fit for
babies in long clothes. When his grandmother told them stories he
always had a but--, and if he could manage it, he liked to get behind her
chair, put on her spectacles and imitate her. He did it very well and
people laughed at him. He was soon able to imitate every one in the
street; he could make fun of all their peculiarities and failings. 'He will
turn out a clever fellow,' said people. But it was all that bit of glass in
his heart, that bit of glass in his eye, and it made him tease little Gerda
who was so devoted to him. He played quite different games now; he
seemed to have grown older. One winter's day, when the snow was
falling fast, he brought in a big magnifying glass; he held out the tail of

his blue coat, and let the snow flakes fall upon it.
'Now look through the glass, Gerda!' he said; every snowflake was
magnified, and looked like a lovely flower, or a sharply pointed star.
'Do you see how cleverly they are made?' said Kay. 'Much more
interesting than looking at real flowers. And there is not a single flaw