The Ice Maiden

And later that evening, when the omnibus was driving back along the same road, Rudy was sitting in it again, going home, while the Parlor Cat was running over to the mill with the news.

"Look here, you kitchen fellow, the miller knows everything now. The affair has come to a fine end. Rudy came here towards evening, and he and Babette found a great deal to whisper about, as they stood in the hallway outside the miller's room. I lay at their feet, but they had neither eyes nor thoughts for me.

" 'I'll go straight to your father,' said Rudy. 'My proposal is perfectly honorable.'

" 'Do you want me to go with you?' said Babette, 'to give you courage?'

" 'I have enough courage,' said Rudy, 'but if you're with me he'll have to be friendly, whether he likes it or not.'

"So they went in. Rudy stepped hard on my tail - he's awfully clumsy. I mewed, but neither he nor Babette had any ears for me. They opened the door, and went in together, and I too. I jumped up on the back of a chair, for I didn't know if Rudy would kick me. But it was the miller who kicked - and what a kick! Out of the door and back up to the mountains and the chamois! Rudy could take care of them, but not of our little Babette!"

"But what was said?" asked the Kitchen Cat.

"Said? Oh, they said everything that people say when they're wooing! 'I love her, and she loves me; and if there's milk in the can for one, there's milk in the can for two.'

" 'But she's much above you,' said the miller. 'She sits on heaps of grain, golden grain - as you know. You can't reach up to her!'

" 'There's nothing so high that one can't reach it, if one has the will to do it!' said Rudy, for he is a determined fellow.

" 'But you said a little while ago that you couldn't reach the eaglet in its nest! Babette is still higher than that.'

" 'I'll take them both,' said Rudy.

" 'Yes,' said the miller. 'I'll give her to you when you bring me the eaglet alive!"' Then he laughed until the tears stood in his eyes. 'But now, thank you for your visit, Rudy.