Purumi and Lamul
There in the market-place, some of the boldest of the boys used to tie their sledges to the carts as they passed by, and so they were pulled along, and got a good ride.
It was so capital!
Just as they were in the very height of their amusement, a large sledge passed by; it was painted quite white, and there was someone in it wrapped up in a rough white mantle of fur, with a rough white fur cap on his head.
The sledge drove round the square twice and Purumi tied on his sledge as quickly as he could, and off he drove with it.
On they went quicker and quicker into the next street; and the person who drove turned round to Purumi, and nodded to him in a friendly manner, just as if they knew each other.
Every time he was going to unite his sledge, the person nodded to him, and then Purumi sat quiet; and so on they went till they came outside the gates of the town.
Then the snow began to fall so thickly that the little boy could not see an arm’s length before him, but still his hand in order to get loose from the sledge, but it was of no use; still the little vehicle rushed on with the quickness of the wind.
He then cried as loud as he could, but no one heard him; the snow drifted and sledge flew on, and sometimes it gave a jerk as though they were driving over hedges and ditches.
He was quite frightened, and he tried to repeat the Lord’s Player; but all he could do, he was only able to remember the multiplication table.
The snow-flakes grew larger and larger, till at last they looked just like great white fowls.
Suddenly they flew on one side; the large sledge stopped, and the person who drove rose up.
It was a lady; her cloak and cap were of snow.
She was tall and of slender figure, and of a dazing whiteness.
It was the Snow Princess.
“We have travelled fast.”
Said she,
“But it is freezing cold. Come under my bearskin.”
And she put in the sledge beside her, wrapped the fur round him, and he left as though he were sinking in a snow-wealth.
“Are you still cold?”
Asked she; and then kissed his forehead.
Ah!
It was colder than ice; penetrated to his very heart which was already almost a frozen lump; it seemed to him as if he were about to die-but a moment more and it was quite congenial to him, and he did not remark the cold that was around him.
“My sledge! Do not forget my sledge!”
It was the first thing he thought of.
It was there tied to one of the white chickens, who flew along The Snow Princess kissed Purumi once more, and then he forgot little Lamul, grandfather, and all whom he left at his home.
“Now you will have no more kisses.”
Said she,
“Or else I should kiss you to death!”
Purumi looked at her.
She was very beautiful; a more clever, or a more lovely countenance he could not fancy to himself; and she no longer appeared of ice as before, when she sat outside the window, and beckoned to him; in his eyes she was perfect, he did not fear her at all, and told her that he could calculate in his head and with fractions, even; that he knew the number of square miles there were in the different countries and how many inhabitants they contained; and she smiled while he spoke.
It then seemed to him as if what he knew was not enough, and he looked upwards in the large huge empty space above him, and on she flew with him; flew high over the black clouds, while the storm moaned and whistled as though it were singing some old tune.
On they flew over woods and lakes, over sea, and many lands, and beneath them the chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves howled, the snow cracked; above them flew large screaming crows, but higher up appeared the moon, quite large, silver and bright; and it was on it that Purumi gazed during the long winter’s night; while by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Princess.
