The little maid was benumbed all over, but she whispered so that Frost could just hear her,--
"Warm, little pigeon, warm, dear Frost,"
And Frost was sorry for her, leapt down with a tremendous crackle and a scattering of frozen snow, wrapped the little maid up in rich furs, and covered her with warm blankets.
In the morning the old woman said to her husband, "Drive off now to the forest, and wake the young couple."
The old man wept when he thought of his little daughter, for he was sure that he would find her dead. He harnessed the mare, and drove off through the snow. He came to the tree, and heard his little daughter singing merrily, while Frost crackled and laughed. There she was, alive and warm, with a good fur cloak about her shoulders, a rich veil, costly blankets round her feet, and a box full of splendid presents.
The old man did not say a word. He was too surprised. He just sat in the sledge staring, while the little maid lifted her box and the box of presents, set them in the sledge, climbed in, and sat down beside him.
They came home, and the little maid, Martha, fell at the feet of her stepmother. The old woman nearly went off her head with rage when she saw her alive, with her fur cloak and rich veil, and the box of splendid presents fit for the daughter of a prince.
"Ah, you s.l.u.t," she cried, "you won"t get round me like that!"
And she would not say another word to the little maid, but went about all day long biting her nails and thinking what to do.
At night she said to the old man,--
"You must take my daughters, too, to that bridegroom in the forest. He will give them better gifts than these."
Things take time to happen, but the tale is quickly told. Early next morning the old woman woke her daughters, fed them with good food, dressed them like brides, hustled the old man, made him put clean hay in the sledge and warm blankets, and sent them off to the forest.
The old man did as he was bid--drove to the big fir tree, set the boxes under the tree, lifted out the stepdaughters and set them on the boxes side by side, and drove back home.
They were warmly dressed, these two, and well fed, and at first, as they sat there, they did not think about the cold.
"I can"t think what put it into mother"s head to marry us both at once," said the first, "and to send us here to be married. As if there were not enough young men in the village. Who can tell what sort of fellows we shall meet here!"
Then they began to quarrel.
"Well," says one of them, "I"m beginning to get the cold shivers. If our fated ones do not come soon, we shall perish of cold."
"It"s a flat lie to say that bridegrooms get ready early. It"s already dinner-time."
"What if only one comes?"
"You"ll have to come another time."
"You think he"ll look at you?"
"Well, he won"t take you, anyhow."
"Of course he"ll take me."
"Take you first! It"s enough to make any one laugh!"
They began to fight and scratch each other, so that their cloaks fell open and the cold entered their bosoms.
[Ill.u.s.tration: There she was, a good fur cloak about her shoulders and costly blankets Round her feet.]
Frost, crackling among the trees, laughing to himself, froze the hands of the two quarrelling girls, and they hid their hands in the sleeves of their fur coats and shivered, and went on scolding and jeering at each other.
"Oh, you ugly mug, dirty nose! What sort of a housekeeper will you make?"
"And what about you, boasting one? You know nothing but how to gad about and lick your own face. We"ll soon see which of us he"ll take."
And the two girls went on wrangling and wrangling till they began to freeze in good earnest.
Suddenly they cried out together,--
"Devil take these bridegrooms for being so long in coming! You have turned blue all over."
And together they replied, shivering,--
"No bluer than yourself, tooth-chatterer."
And Frost, not so far away, crackled and laughed, and leapt from fir tree to fir tree, crackling as he came.
The girls heard that some one was coming through the forest.
"Listen! there"s some one coming. Yes, and with bells on his sledge!"
"Shut up, you s.l.u.t! I can"t hear, and the frost is taking the skin off me."
They began blowing on their fingers.
And Frost came nearer and nearer, crackling, laughing, talking to himself, just as he is doing to-day. Nearer and nearer he came, leaping from tree-top to tree-top, till at last he leapt into the great fir under which the two girls were sitting and quarrelling.
He leant down, looking through the branches, and asked,--
"Are you warm, maidens? Are you warm, little red cheeks? Are you warm, little pigeons?"
"Ugh, Frost, the cold is hurting us. We are frozen. We are waiting for our bridegrooms, but the cursed fellows have not turned up."
Frost came a little lower in the tree, and crackled louder and swifter.
"Are you warm, maidens? Are you warm, my little red cheeks?"
"Go to the devil!" they cried out. "Are you blind? Our hands and feet are frozen!"
Frost came still lower in the branches, and cracked and crackled louder than ever.
"Are you warm, maidens?" he asked.
"Into the pit with you, with all the fiends," the girls screamed at him, "you ugly, wretched fellow!"... And as they were cursing at him their bad words died on their lips, for the two girls, the cross children of the cruel stepmother, were frozen stiff where they sat.
Frost hung from the lowest branches of the tree, swaying and crackling while he looked at the anger frozen on their faces. Then he climbed swiftly up again, and crackling and cracking, chuckling to himself, he went off, leaping from fir tree to fir tree, this way and that through the white, frozen forest.