"Don't worry," said the little boy, "Fido will find it;" and sure enough, in the twinkle of a star he was back with the coal in his mouth! The little boy put it in its place as quickly as he could, for the snowman seemed to be in a hurry.
"Didn't you see that we were at a baker's shop?" he said. "I know I must have been near the oven, too, for one of my ears is almost melted off."
"Why, you haven't any ears!" said the little boy. "We did not know how to make them."
"No ears?" cried the snowman. "Then how do I hear what you say? But there now, you are only a little boy, and cannot know everything. Besides, here we are at the palace, and you must be quiet."
The little boy had thought he was passing the schoolhouse where his big brothers and sisters went to school, but when he went inside he saw that he was wrong, and the snowman was right, for in the place where the teacher's desk should have been, was a throne; and on the throne sat the Winter King with icicles in his beard.
As soon as he saw the snowman and the little boy, he began to talk very fast:—
"What has this little boy been doing? Why isn't he in bed? Come here, Jack Frost, and tickle his toes."
"Oh! no, no," cried the snowman. "He has done nothing wrong. He is one of my best friends, and I have brought him here with me to ask you not to let the sun shine to-morrow. I don't want to melt."
"Ah! hum! ha!" said the king. "I don't know about that. You will have to melt sometime, won't you?"