would run off. Every single night I tickle his neck with my bright
knife, he is so frightened of it.' The little girl produced a long knife
out of a hole in the wall and drew it across the reindeer's neck. The
poor animal laughed and kicked, and the robber girl laughed and pulled
Gerda down into the bed with her.

'Do you have that knife by you while you are asleep?' asked Gerda,
looking rather frightened.

'I always sleep with a knife,' said the little robber girl. 'You never
know what will happen. But now tell me again what you told me before
about little Kay, and why you went out into the world.' So Gerda told
her all about it again, and the wood pigeons cooed up in their cage
above them; the other pigeons were asleep. The little robber girl put
her arm round Gerda's neck and went to sleep with the knife in her other
hand, and she was soon snoring. But Gerda would not close her eyes; she
did not know whether she was to live or to die. The robbers sat round
the fire, eating and drinking, and the old woman was turning
somersaults. This sight terrified the poor little girl. Then the wood
pigeons said, 'Coo, coo, we have seen little Kay; his sledge was drawn
by a white chicken, and he was sitting in the Snow Queen's sledge; it
was floating low down over the trees, while we were in our nests. She
blew upon us young ones, and they all died except we two; coo, coo.'

'What are you saying up there?' asked Gerda. 'Where was the Snow Queen
going? Do you know anything about it?'

'She was most likely going to Lapland, because there is always snow and
ice there! Ask the reindeer who is tied up there.'