But Gerda patted her cheek, and asked about the Prince and Princess.

'They are travelling in foreign countries,' said the robber girl.

'But the crow?' asked Gerda.

'Oh, the crow is dead!' she answered. 'The tame sweetheart is a widow,
and goes about with a bit of black wool tied round her leg. She pities
herself bitterly, but it's all nonsense! But tell me how you got on
yourself, and where you found him.'

Gerda and Kay both told her all about it.

'Snip, snap, snurre, it's all right at last then!' she said, and she
took hold of their hands and promised that if she ever passed through
their town she would pay them a visit. Then she rode off into the wide
world. But Kay and Gerda walked on, hand in hand, and wherever they went
they found the most delightful spring and blooming flowers. Soon they
recognised the big town where they lived, with its tall towers, in which
the bells still rang their merry peals. They went straight on to
grandmother's door, up the stairs and into her room. Everything was just
as they had left it, and the old clock ticked in the corner, and the
hands pointed to the time. As they went through the door into the room
they perceived that they were grown up. The roses clustered round the
open window, and there stood their two little chairs. Kay and Gerda sat
down upon them, still holding each other by the hand. All the cold empty
grandeur of the Snow Queen's palace had passed from their memory like a
bad dream. Grandmother sat in God's warm sunshine reading from her
Bible.