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ran down his spine and icicles formed on his lashes.
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"My boy," stuttered Grampa, rushing over to his side, "I'm afraid we've been a bit hasty. Let
us consider this matter a little further."
"None of that," fumed Chin Chilly, bustling forward hastily. "None of that. My word is my
word. I insist upon keeping it."
"We'll take your word if you'll keep your daughter," began Grampa quickly. But, ad-vancing
with mincing little steps, the icy Princess held out her hand. Her nose was so long and sharp that it made
Tatters squint but before he could make any objection she seized his hand in her cold clasp. At the same
moment all the snow men except Chin Chilly sprang back across the little neck of land.
"Run!" panted Grampa, tugging Tatters by the coat.
"Run!" gasped Urtha. But before Tatters could run there was a blinding flash. Chin Chilly had
raised his sword, snapped off his daughter's hand and, seizing her by the other one, he dragged her back
across the strip of land. Then, before a body could wink, the snow men with their sharp axes chopped
away this connecting link leaving Grampa and his company marooned on the desolate iceberg.
"You have my daughter's hand, but she's already grown another," shouted Chin Chilly
maliciously. And so she had! The little party on the ice could plainly see that for themselves. "You have
my daughter's hand and that is your half of the Kingdom," shrieked the wretched old snow King, nearly
bending double at his own joke.
"Half the Kingdom and the Princess' hand!" snorted the old soldier in a fury. "I'll snap off his
whiskers! I'll pound him to snow flakes!"
Gathering himself together, Grampa prepared to jump back to Isa Poso. But Tatters, flinging
the hand of the Princess as far as he could, seized Grampa around the waist. And it is well that he did, for
already there was a great stretch of tumbling waters between the iceberg and the island.
"He has no more honor than a sword-fish!" spluttered Grampa, breaking away from the
Prince. "I've never been so insulted in my life!"
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"Where is the golden ship?" demanded an indignant voice. "Where are the diamonds? What
have you done with the Princess?"
Dropping with a thud that sent a shower of ice splinters into the air, the weather cock planted
himself before Grampa. He had been looking all over Isa Poso for Chin Chilly and had arrived just in
time to see his friends sailing off on the iceberg.
"Oh, Bill!" cried Urtha, giving the iron bird an impulsive hug, "I thought you were lost!"
"Where is the golden ship? Where are the diamonds?" insisted the weather cock, slipping out
of Urtha's embrace.
"Oh, go crack yourself some icicles," mut-tered the old soldier crossly. He did not like to be
reminded of his cheerful prophecy. "Go crack yourself some icicles, Bill, that's all the diamonds you'll
get."
"There isn't any ship-nor any diamonds-nor anything!" said Tatters, wrapping the skin of the
old thread bear more tightly about him and staring drearily over the tossing waters of the Nonestic
Ocean.
"But you don't have to marry the Princess," Urtha reminded him softly, "and even if this isn't a
golden ship couldn't we dance and be happy?"
"Well, if we don't dance, we'll freeze," fumed Grampa, beginning to stamp up and down.
"We'll freeze anyway," he predicted gloomily. "Look pleasant, my boy. We might as well freeze as
attractively as possible. They'll carve us a monument on a block of ice, no doubt: 'Frozen in the line of
duty!'
Tatters coughed plaintively and began to tramp sadly up and down after Grampa.
"Don't freeze," begged the little flower fairy, clasping her hands in distress and keeping step
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with the down-hearted adventurers. "Why, where's that funny bottle?" she asked suddenly.
"The medicine! What have you done with the wizard's medicine?" crowed the weather cock,
flapping his wings. Now so much had happened to the old soldier since the eruption that he had entirely
forgotten Gorba's cure for everything. But at Urtha's words he snatched it out and, there, listed under
colds, chills, frost bites and exposure, Grampa found a remedy for their troubles.
"You've saved our lives, my dear," sighed the old soldier, measuring out four drops for Tatters
on a spoonful of snow. And everything was better after that, for as soon as Grampa and the Prince
swallowed the marvelous mixture they began to tingle with warmth and even an iceberg could not long be
cheerless with a little fairy like Urtha aboard. Everywhere she stepped gay posies blossomed and soon
there were circles and circles of them bobbing in the bright sunshine. Urtha and Bill did not feel the cold,
and as Grampa and Tatters were now frost proof, their whole outlook changed. The huge iceberg was
sliding along through the choppy waves at high speed and the sensation was not only pleasant but highly
exhilarating.
"Which way are we going?" asked the old soldier, sitting down recklessly on a cake of ice.
"East," announced the weather cock, after twirling around three times like a top.
"That's good," sighed Grampa, "for East of us lies Oz and the nearer we come to Oz, the
farther we get from Isa Poso."
"I never want to see it again! And if that is a sample of your Princesses, I'll be like you,
Grampa, and never marry," said the Prince, taking a seat beside the old soldier. "I think, myself, that if we
can find my father's head, we'd better just go home anyway. We could work hard in the gingham
gardens, raise bigger crops and-"
"And I'll help you," smiled Urtha, drifting about over the ice like an old-fashioned bouquet and
filling the frosty air with a lovely fragrance.
"But the fortune," objected Bill, staring at the Prince in horror. "We have to find the fortune."
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"That's right," agreed the old soldier, remem-bering Mrs. Sew-and-Sew's words about
refur-nishing the castle. "We mustn't give up yet, just because we've bumped into some odd and chilly
places. Just wait-there are lots of Princesses in Oz, and fortunes too!"
"Well I prefer fairies," sighed Tatters, with a smile at Urtha.
"Look!" cried the little flower girl delightedly. "Let's pretend this is a' silver ship and there-" as
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