"Are you allowed to enter the palace whenever you wish?" asked Billy.
"I don't have to wish—I just go in."
"Who lives here?"
"The Calcium King and his daughter Sterry Optican: she's an actress."
"An actress?" exclaimed Billy.
"Yes—she's a cold, proud beauty—but the King rules us with a light hand—here we are," and Jack Frost led Billy through the Ice Palace gates.
"Who are those men?" asked Billy pointing to two tall, soldierly looking men who stood at either side of the gate with huge ice-picks in their hands.
"The Ice Guard," whispered Jack Frost, "all picked men; let me introduce you to Calcium King."
Billy looked about him, but could see no one but an old man seated at the window behind a great reflector and two boiler-like things, such as they have at the theatre to throw a bright light on the stage. The machine was buzzing and sizzing away, and the old man was turning the light this way and that out over the streets and houses. And whichever way it turned a thousand flames of golden light shone in the heavens and made the houses sparkle and sparkle again with brilliant colors. Billy knew then where the Northern Lights came from.
"Where's the King?" whispered Billy.