“Oh, the raven is dead. But tell me what you have been doing, and where you found little Kay.”
The three children sit down under a fir-tree, and Gerda tells of her journey through Lapland and Finland, and how at last she had found little Kay in the palace of the Snow Queen.
“Snip, snap, snorra!” shouts the robber-girl, which is her way of saying “Hurrah!” Then, promising that if ever she is near their town, she will pay them a visit, off she gallops into the wide world.
On wander the two children, on and on. At last they see the tall towers of the old town where they had lived together. Soon they come to the narrow street they remember so well. They climb the long, long stair, and burst into the little attic.
The rose-bush is in bloom, and the sun pours in upon the old grandmother, who reads her Bible by the open window.
Kay and Gerda take their two little stools and sit down one on either side of her, and listen to the words from the Good Book. As they listen, a great peace steals into their souls.
And outside it is summer—warm, bright, beautiful summer.
