Then the Finland woman lifted little Gerda on the reindeer and away he sped . ` Oh , I have left my gloves and boots behind ! ' cried Gerda . She missed them in the piercing cold , but the reindeer did not dare to stop . On he ran till he came to the bush with red berries . Then he set Gerda down and kissed her mouth , and great big tears ran down his cheeks , and then he ran back . There stood poor Gerda , without shoes or gloves in the middle of the bitter cold of Finland . She ran on as fast as she could . A regiment of gigantic snowflakes came against her , but they melted when they touched her , and she went on with fresh courage . And now we must see what Kay was doing . He was not thinking of Gerda , and never dreamt that she was standing outside the palace . The walls of the palace were built of driven snow , and the doors and windows of piercing winds . There were more than a hundred halls in it all of frozen snow . The largest was several miles long ; the bright Northern lights lit them up , and very large and empty and cold and glittering they were ! In the middle of the great hall was a frozen lake which had cracked in a thousand pieces ; each piece was exactly like the other . Here the Snow-queen used to sit when she was at home . Little Kay was almost blue and black with cold , but he did not feel it , for she had kissed away his feelings and his heart was a lump of ice . He was pulling about some sharp , flat pieces of ice , and trying to fit one into the other . He thought each was most beautiful , but that was because of the splinter of glass in his eye . He fitted them into a great many shapes , but he wanted to make them spell the word ` Love . '
The Snow-queen had said , ` If you can spell out XXXXX word you shalt be your own master .
On as behind for like of outside than that till