CHAPTER XXVIII

HOW A LITTLE BURDEN MAY GROW TO BE A GRIEVOUS ONE.—STORY OF A MAN

WITH A MONKEY IN HIS HOOD.—MY TERRIBLE SUFFERING.—CONCERNING THE

AWFUL PANIC THAT SEIZED UPON THE KOLTYKWERPS.—MY VISIT TO THE

DESERTED ICE-PALACE, AND WHAT HAPPENED TO FUFFCOOJAH.—END OF HIS

BRIEF BUT STRANGE CAREER.—A FROZEN KISS ON A BLADE OF HORN, OR HOW

SCHNEEBOULE CHOSE A HUSBAND.

Ah, little princess, how easy was it for thee to say that I would soon

grow accustomed to the slender burden and note it no more? How prone are

we to call light the burdens which we lay upon the shoulders of others

for our own benefit? True, Fuffcoojah was not as long as a horse, nor as

broad as an ox, and when in accordance with the king’s decree the hood

had been completed and the little animal was stowed away therein, close

against my back so as to get a goodly share of the warmth of my body, it

seemed to me that Schneeboule was right, that I would soon become

accustomed to the load and note it no more. And so it seemed the second

and the third day, but not on the fourth; for on that day the little

load appeared to have gained somewhat in weight, and although I was

quick to feign that it was not so when Princess Schneeboule quizzed me

saying,—

“There, little baron, did I not tell thee that thou wouldst soon forget

that Fuffcoojah slept upon thy shoulders?” yet in my heart I felt that

he really had grown a mite heavier.

On the fifth day Bulger and I were bidden to a merry-making at the

palace of ice, and as I rose from my divan to betake me thither,

methought I was strangely heavy-hearted, and so did Bulger, for he made

several efforts to draw a smile, or a cheery tone, from me, but in vain.

[Illustration: THE BARON’S FLIGHT TO THE ICE PALACE.]

Suddenly I realized that there was a weight pressing against my back,

no, not a heavy weight, but a weight all the same, and then I whispered

to myself, “Why, if I am going to a merry-making, I’ll cast it off!” and

then I wakened from my deep abstraction and murmured,—

“How strange that I should have forgotten that Fuffcoojah was in my

hood?” And so I went to the merry-making with Fuffcoojah nestled between

my shoulders, and the Koltykwerps laughed at the little baron and his

child, as they called him, and drew near and raised the flap and peeped

in at the curious creature within the hood, and when Fuffcoojah felt

their icy breaths, he buried his nose in the fur and sighed and

whimpered. Then, for a moment, when the Princess Schneeboule came and

sat beside me and praised me for my readiness to carry out her wishes,

and thanked me so sweetly for my goodness to her, I forgot all about the

little load laid upon me, and I ate the frozen tidbits from the royal

kitchen, and laughed and joked with Lords Phrostyphiz and Glacierbhoy,

just as had been my wont before Gelidus had decreed that Fuffcoojah

should make his bed on my shoulders.

But when the fête was over and I stepped from the broad portal of the

ice-palace and looked up at the mighty lens set in the mountain side,

through which the moonlight of the outer world was streaming in subdued

but glorious splendor, I suddenly felt my legs bend under me, I

staggered from right to left, I clutched at shadows, I was, it seemed to

me, about to be crushed beneath a terrible burden. I quickened my pace,

I broke into a run, I threw my arms into the air as if I would cast off

the weight that was smothering me. And so I came to my lodging puffing,

panting, gasping.

“Why, what a fool am I!” was my first word when I had got my breath;

“it’s only little Fuffcoojah on my back, stowed away in my fur hood. I

must be beside myself to have thought that a great monster was seated

there and that he was gradually pressing me down, crushing the life out

of me by degrees, flattening me to the very ground, and I not able to

escape from his terrible embrace or to squirm out from under his awful

limbs wrapt around my neck and body!”

All night long this monster was clinging to me, and urging me to a

faster pace, up and down, across and around, I knew not where, on

bootless errands, ending only to begin again, on searches after nothing

hidden nowhere, trying a thousand lids and finding every one locked,

returning home only to go forth again, up and away and out on

interminable highways vanishing in a point far on ahead, with that

grievous burden forever on my shoulders growing heavier and heavier,

till it seemed that I must go down with it into the dust. But no, it

knew full well that it must not ride me to the death, so when I was

ready to drop, it threw off part of its weight to give me courage to

begin again. When the morning came my pulse was galloping and my cheeks

were on fire. I could feel the blood pounding against my temples, and it

was natural that my face should be crimsoned over with the flush of

fever. Half in a daze I walked forth toward the grand staircase leading

up to the ice palace, when suddenly I was startled by a fearful scream.

I halted and looked up, when another and another burst upon my ears.

The terrified Koltykwerps were fleeing before me in every direction,

shrieking as they fled,—

“Fly, fly, brothers, the little baron is burning, the little baron is

burning, fly, brothers, fly!”

In a few moments terror had seized upon every living creature in the icy

domain of King Gelidus. They fled from me in mad haste, taking refuge in

the distant caverns and corridors, filling the air with their wild

outcries, no one being brave enough to halt and take a second look. My

inflamed countenance filled them with such awful terror that they could

only tear along and cry,—

“Fly, brothers, fly; the little baron is burning, the little baron is

burning!”

With Bulger at my heels, I turned and sprang up the staircase with the

intention of seeking out King Gelidus, and explaining the matter to him.

But he, too, had fled, and with him every sentinel and serving man,

every courtier and councillor. The palace was as still as death. I

hastened through its silent corridors calling out,—

“Schneeboule! Princess Schneeboule! Surely thou art not afraid of me?

Turn back, I will not harm thee, I’m not burning! Turn back, oh, turn

back!”

With this, I reached the throne-room; not a living creature was to be

seen; the vast chamber was as still as death. I staggered to a divan,

and pillowing my poor aching head on a cushion, I fell into a sound and

refreshing sleep.

When I awoke, I rubbed my eyes and looked about me, and at first I

thought that I was still alone in the great round chamber with its walls

of ice; but no, there on the divan sat Schneeboule, and she smiled and

said in mock displeasure,—

“Thou art not a very watchful nurse, little baron, for in thy sleep thou

didst squeeze Fuffcoojah so tightly against a cushion, that he crawled

out from thy hood and nestled in my arms.”

“In thy arms, Schneeboule?” I exclaimed breathlessly, for I feared for

the worst, and springing up I drew aside the soft pelt which she had

wrapped around Fuffcoojah, and there he lay, dead! Poor little beast, he

had been so happy to crawl into the arms of one he loved so dearly, and

had cuddled up closer and closer to her in search of greater warmth; but

only to come nearer and nearer to a heart that could not warm him; and

so the insidious chill of death, which bringeth sweet and pleasant

drowsiness with it, had stole over him and he had died.

And Schneeboule’s tears, freezing as they fell, now showered like a

gentle hail of tiny gems upon the little dead beast, no longer

Fuffcoojah, but once again the Little Man with the Frozen Smile.

Presently the Koltykwerps recovered from their senseless fear, and first

one by one, and then group-wise, they returned to their homes, King

Gelidus and his court coming back too, to the fair palace which they had

abandoned in their wild fright when the cry had gone up that the little

baron was burning.

Everybody was sorry to hear that Fuffcoojah had died the second time,

and many were the frozen tears that dropped from the chilly cheeks of

the Koltykwerps as they looked upon the Little Man with the Frozen Smile

as he lay on the white pelt beside the Princess Schneeboule.

That day we bore him back to the ice grotto, and having laid him in the

hollow moulded by his body in the crystal block, it was closed again so

skilfully by the king’s quarrymen that no eye was keen enough to note

where the cleavage had been. And the same uncanny glint was in his eyes,

and when the Koltykwerps saw this their icy hearts felt a cold shiver of

satisfaction, for not only was the Little Man with the Frozen Smile back

in his crystal cell again, but all the fears and dreadful fancies which

his coming to life again had given rise to were past and gone forever,

and peace and quiet and sweet contentment reigned throughout the icy

realm of his frigid Majesty Gelidus, King of the Koltykwerps!

Now nothing remained to make his cold heart crack with joy but to see

his beloved child Schneeboule make choice of a husband. And he had not

long to wait, for one day upon entering the palace she saw a youth lying

at the foot of the stairway overcome with sleep. In one hand he held an

alabaster lamp, and in the other a new wick which he was about to fit

into it, for the youth was a lamp-trimmer in the ice palace of King

Gelidus; and when the Princess Schneeboule saw him lying there overcome

with sleep, she stooped and kissed him on the cheek, and passed on

without another thought about the matter, one way or the other.

And the kiss froze on the cheek of the lamp-trimmer, where Schneeboule

had pressed it.

[Illustration: DEATH OF FUFFCOOJAH.]

Presently King Gelidus came tramping into the hallway with his breath

white upon his beard, and he saw the youth lying there, and the frozen

kiss on his cheek, and he bade Glacierbhoy scrape the delicate frost

crystals from the youth’s face with a blade of polished horn.

“What hast there, father of mine?” asked the princess, when she saw him

bearing the blade of horn along so carefully.

“A kiss which someone pressed upon the cheek of one of my lamp-trimmers,

now lying on the staircase overcome with sleep,” replied King Gelidus,

in ringing, icy tones.

“Why, father of mine,” exclaimed Princess Schneeboule, “now that thou

speakest of it, I really believe the kiss is mine, for I recollect

kissing someone as I entered the palace, I was deep in thought, but no

doubt the youth pleased me as he lay there, asleep with lamp in one hand

and wick in the other.”

And that lamp-trimmer trimmed no more lamps in the ice palace of his

frigid Majesty Gelidus, King of the Koltykwerps.

No doubt he made Schneeboule a very good husband, and I’m quite sure

that she made him a good wife. I would have been glad to tarry for the

nuptial feast, but that was out of the question. I had stayed too long

already.