“Squawk! Cluck!” cried Gustava. “Would your Majesty like to see my beautiful child?” and she showed the Queen her Egg. “Just look, your Majesty! Have you ever seen anything more lovely? Such a pale brown color! Such an innocent expression! Perhaps your Majesty is also a mother?” “Tick! Tock! Don’t forget to wind me!” said the old Clock. [Illustration: This is Nanna, our Goat, your Majesty.] “Gustava Hen talks too much,” the fat Teapot in the corner cupboard told her daughters the Teacups. “When the Queen speaks to _you_, just say ‘Yes, your Majesty,’ and ‘No, your Majesty,’ and I dare say she will take you all to Court and find you handsome husbands among the Royal Coffeecups.” [Illustration] “Your Majesty should see my beautiful home,” went on Gustava. “A nest of pure gold!” (She thought it was gold, but it was really yellow straw.) “Just like my throne,” replied the Queen. “Speaking of beautiful homes, you _should_ see my Palace! There are fifty-three rooms!” (She said this because it was the highest number she knew, for there are fifty-three cards in the pack, counting the Joker who keeps all the cards amused when they are shut up in their box. And she had seen a room in the Palace, because she had been used in a game of _Skat_ there, once in her early youth. But that was long, long ago.) “My throne and the King’s throne are pure gold, just like your nest, my good Gustava. And the walls are painted red and white, in swirls, like strawberries and cream. The stove has such a tall slender figure, and wears a golden crown. And then, just imagine, all the lamps are dripping with icicles at the same time that the floor is covered with blooming roses!” (For that is how she thought of the glass lusters on the lamps and the carpet on the floor.) “Icicles! Ice! Freezing! _That_ reminds me of our important message!” cried Nanna. “Your Snowman, Goran. He looks so dreadfully cold out there, we were afraid he would perish.” “Oh, yes! How could we have forgotten for so long! Cluck! Cluck! Cluck! He will certainly be frozen to death unless something is done quickly!” “Do you mean to tell me that any one is out of doors on such a night as this?” questioned the Queen. “Have him brought in at once! Your turn next!” And she looked so severely at Goran that he felt his ears getting red. So Goran and Nanna brought the Snowman in, while the Queen gave orders from the doorway, Gustava sat on her darling Egg to keep it warm, Mejau walked away with his tail as big as a bottle brush, and the Geraniums cried in chorus: “Shut the door! Shut the door! We shall all catch cold!” [Illustration: The Queen and the Snowman.] “Poor thing! How pale he is!” exclaimed the Queen. “And how dreadfully cold! Put him in a chair by the fire!” The Snowman looked out of wondering sky-blue glass eyes, but said never a word, for he was very shy; and as he had only been born that afternoon, everything in the world was new to him.