“While he was away the Ice-Queen came with all her white spearsmen and attacked the country and conquered it. Then she set us all to work, for she knew that in all the world there were no such smiths as the dwarfs of the Fire King’s country, and not until we have forged her the magic chain that binds all but one’s self will she set us free to go about out own affairs again. “That is why we are all working to forge the links, and if we could but make one that would stand so much as a touch of her finger we would have hopes of making it, but so far not one has been made but what flies into pieces at her lightest touch. “But there,” he added; “we must set to work, for the days are all too short for what we have to do.” “Wait a bit,” said Teddy, “I should like to have a stroke at that chain myself. Will you lend me a hammer and let me try?” “No, no,” cried the dwarfs, shaking their heads. “We have no time to waste in lending out hammers and anvil.” “Look!” said Teddy, taking off his ruby girdle and holding it out to them. “You shall have this if you will let me try.” The dwarfs’ eyes glittered, and they took the girdle and all crowded around to look and handle it, for they had never seen such fine rubies before, not even down in the middle of the earth; and at last they told Teddy that they would lend him their hammers awhile in exchange for the ruby girdle. “Though what can you do with them?” they said, “for look at your hands; they are white and smooth, and not hairy and strong like ours.” “Never you mind,” said Teddy, “for sometimes white, smooth hands can do the work that others can’t,” and he took one of their hammers in his hand as he spoke. “What will you have to work with?” they asked. “Oh, anything at all,” said Teddy, “if it is no more than an old nail, so that it is something to begin with.” The dwarfs laughed, and picking up an old nail that was on the floor they laid it upon the anvil. Then Teddy raised the hammer, and the ruby of the ring he wore throbbed and burned until his hand was hot, and his arm was so strong that the hammer was like a feather in his grasp. As he beat and turned the nail he sang, and it seemed to him that the fire sang with him, clear and thin, and sounding like the voice of the Counterpane Fairy,— “Hammer and turn! The fire must burn, The coals must glow, The bellows blow. Beat, good hammer, loud and fast; So the chain will be made at last. “Clankety-clink! We forge the link. My hammer bold, This chain must hold. The snow shall melt, the ice fly fast, For the magic chain is wrought at last.” With these words Teddy threw down the hammer and lifted the chain he had made, and it was as thin as a hair, as light as a breath, and yet so strong that no power on earth could break it.