The wolves howled and the ravens screamed, while the red lights quivered
up in the sky.

'There are my old northern lights,' said the reindeer; 'see how they
flash!' and on it rushed faster than ever, day and night. The loaves
were eaten, and the ham too, and then they were in Lapland.


SIXTH STORY

THE LAPP WOMAN AND THE FINN WOMAN

[Illustration: _The reindeer did not dare to stop. It ran on till it
came to the bush with the red berries. There it put Gerda down, and
kissed her on the mouth, while big shining tears trickled down its
face._]

They stopped by a little hut, a very poverty-stricken one; the roof
sloped right down to the ground, and the door was so low that the people
had to creep on hands and knees when they wanted to go in or out. There
was nobody at home here but an old Lapp woman, who was frying fish over
a train-oil lamp. The reindeer told her all Gerda's story, but it told
its own first; for it thought it was much the most important. Gerda was
so overcome by the cold that she could not speak at all.

'Oh, you poor creatures!' said the Lapp woman; 'you've got a long way
to go yet; you will have to go hundreds of miles into Finmark, for the
Snow Queen is paying a country visit there, and she burns blue lights
every night. I will write a few words on a dried stock-fish, for I have
no paper. I will give it to you to take to the Finn woman up there. She