SIXTH STORY: The Lapland Woman and the
Finland WomanThey stopped at a little hut; it was very mean looking;
the roof sloped nearly down to the ground, and the door was so low
that the family had to creep in on their hands and knees, when they
went in and out. There was no one at home but an old Lapland woman,
who was cooking fish by the light of a train-oil lamp. The reindeer
told her all about Gerda's story, after having first told his own,
which seemed to him the most important, but Gerda was so pinched
with the cold that she could not speak. "Oh, you poor things," said
the Lapland woman, "you have a long way to go yet. You must travel
more than a hundred miles farther, to Finland. The Snow Queen lives
there now, and she burns Bengal lights every evening. I will write
a few w
