 And I want to tell you more about how Jump Jump and I saved Christmas. We talked with Eskimos, took a ride in the back of a whale, and were captured by the ice elves. Don't tell you more about that today. All the folks from Holiday House were at the North Pole. Jump jumped a little out for me. In the Christmas spirit, it looks like the fairy doll that hangs on our Christmas tree each year at the orphanage was guiding us along a silver path. It was to take us to the palace of the wicked ice queen who had kidnapped Santa Claus's reindeer. Yesterday, I told you about the Christmas tree forest where all the old Christmas trees grow. It was beautiful, and I'd like to have stayed there for a long, long time. But we had to hurry on. I'll tell you what happened next in just a minute. Sound we hear is the noise of the bells and the harness of our Eskimo dogs. Now, y'all a day was standing on the runners of the sled driving the dog team. But a little jump jump, the elf that is only as big as your thumb, whizzed over our heads in his toy red helicopter. Ahead of the sled walked the fort from Holiday House, making up poems to himself about the snow and the ice. I took hardly the climb and I walked along beside the sled to keep Merry Holiday company. He was so quiet and kind of lonesome and scary. They're all in that snow. Up ahead, isn't that a signpost stuck into the snow? Yes, it looks like a signpost, Merry Holiday. Maybe we're arriving at the frozen country at last. Oh, the frozen country? The frozen country? Oh, goodness me. That's where the queen dwells, that ice queen, if I'm not mistaken. You are not mistaken, aren't you, Fargley? Over once, as the famous man once said, I was hoping I was wrong. Jump jump. Can you read the sign from up there in your helicopter? You're the funny one around here, are you? I'm supposed to be the funny one here. Jump jump, this is serious. Why did the words on the signboard say? Well, well, well, well, well. Oh, I forgot. I'll read it for you, jump jump. We're almost to it now. I can almost make out the words myself from here. Yes, now we can all read the sign. Jump jump is flying around the sign, Merry Holiday. Yes, I see him. He's landing right on top of the signpost now. Now we can all read the sign. Or can we? You can read if you can read, Archie Fargley. Read? Why, of course I can read. Oh, oh, it says, quote, you are now leaving the country of the Christmas tree forest and entering the forest country, the frozen country, ruled by the Ice Queen, unquote. Yes, so it does. Do you realize that once we cross this boundary line, we're actually in the Ice Queen's country? Oh, whoa, oh, my, oh, my. The Ice Queen's country? I don't suppose we could go home right now. Do you? Just leave the reindeer with the Ice Queen and not have Santa Claus deliver any presents on Christmas Eve. Oh, my goodness. No, no, we couldn't do that, could we? No, as a famous man once said, no, we cannot go home. We must rescue the reindeer from the Ice Queen. Why are we wasting our time? Oh, the poet's thinking about his poems, Tim. I guess the poet doesn't care where we go as long as he can find something beautiful about which to write a poem. Where's Sleepy Slim the lion? Yes, where is Sleepy Slim? I haven't seen him for a long time. Oh, Sleepy Slim kept falling down in the snow and going to sleep, so I finally told him he could ride in the sled and take a nap under all our extra coats and sweaters. Oh, me, that lazy lion who's always lying down. Well, well. Do we cross the boundary lions now, Mary Halliday? Yes, yes, I think we're ready. Why don't you walk ahead with the poet, Archie Pogli, and sort of keep a look out. And Tim, you and Jump Jump stay with me and the dog team. That's fine with me, Mary Halliday, but just what do I look out for? Oh, just anything, Archie Pogli. Look sharp, Archie Pogli, and teleport to watch out too. After all, the ice queen knows we're coming by now. Yes, Archie Pogli, and who knows what she might do. She might send her snowman army against us. A snowman army. Yes, or she might send the ice maidens after us. The ice who? Ice maidens, Archie Pogli. I wouldn't be scared of lady ice men. But these ice maidens are so big, Archie Pogli. How big, Mary Halliday. Twenty feet high. Twenty feet high, yes. Ice maidens, twenty feet high? Oh, who'd be scared of... What? Did you say... Did you say twenty feet high, Mary Halliday? Why, that's as tall as you are for an ancient home. You mean women as tall as a building? So I've heard, Tim. Let's hope Archie Pogli we don't meet any. Jump Jump, remember now, when you get back in your helicopter, remember to stay right over my head. Or in my pocket, you'll have to go. Yes, Mary Halliday. All right, then, everybody, let's go, and stay close to the silver trail that the Christmas spirit told us would take us to the Ice Queen's Palace. Yes, we will. I'll start out with a poet, and we'll go on ahead. Oh, I hope it's the ice maidens' day off. I guess I'd better sing. I'm a jolly old clown, and I never do frown in a... Come on, poet, don't daydream there. And I make little children laugh with glee, and never do whine, because I haven't got time for the jolly old clown, as you can see. Well, we started off in the frozen country. Archie probably didn't sing much, though it was too cold. Jump Jump did exactly as he was told, and flew like a red bird just above Mary Halliday's fur hood. I sometimes ran beside the sled to keep my fur warm, or it sat on the front of kind of a string of proddy husky dogs that took us farther and farther into the frozen country. We kept watching, but nothing unusual happened until later in the afternoon. Then Archie Pogli came running back to Mary Halliday to stop the sled to talk to him. Have you seen the Ice Queen's Palace, Archie Pogli? No, no, not yet. Oh, it's cold. My hair is sprouting icicles. My silly old clown, it's cold down here in the snow. Jump Jump, and you spin around up there in your red helicopter and laugh at me in my frozen hair. I'll just get a handful of snow like this, and I'll make a nice round snowball like this, and I'll throw it like this. Oh, you didn't come within three feet of him, Archie Pogli. He's waving at you. Waving at me? Is he making fun of me? Well, here's another snowball for you. Don't make a mistake and hit him with the snowball, Archie Pogli. Mary Halliday is a famous man once said I couldn't hit the side of a barn. See? Oh! Oh, you did hit him with a snowball, Archie Pogli. You hit Jump Jump's helicopter. Oh, I couldn't have. I can't hit the side of a barn. You did, Archie Pogli. You hit Jump Jump's helicopter and it's fallen to the ground. Oh, he isn't hurt, is he, Mary Halliday? Oh, no, Tim, not at all. Thank goodness he just covered with snow. I can't hardly hit me with a snowball. Oh, I can't understand it. I simply can't understand it. I can't hit the side of a barn. Oh, I'm so sorry, Jump Jump. How come I'm afraid? It was just an accident, Jump Jump. Just an accident? A five by five guy like me would never hit a guy who's no feet free. Oh, you're making lines, Archie Pogli. You're talking like the poet. Did I? Making lines like the poet? Well, I'm so upset. I don't know what I'm saying. I hit Jump Jump with a snowball. I couldn't do it again in a million, trillion, squillion years. All I did was make a snowball like this and throw it up in the air like this. Ouch! Now you hit Tim. Now you hit Tim, Archie Pogli. Why don't you go and play snowball with the poet, Archie Pogli? He's much more your size. For Archie Pogli, he kept his laughing for quite a while. We'd almost forgotten you were in the frozen country and likely to meet the ice queen any minute when suddenly a cold wind began to blow. Oh, it's cold and the wind is blowing snow into my face. Yes, mine too. We'll have to stop this lad. Here comes Archie Pogli in the poet, Mary Holiday. We need some more covers. We, as a famous man once said, ooh, it's cool. Here you are, Archie Pogli. We hand this sweater to the poet. I've gotten myself another jacket, Mary Holiday. Jump Jump, are you warm enough in my furline pocket? Are you sure that you're warm enough, Mary Holiday? This is the coldest wind I ever felt blow. Oh, yes, I am fine. There's one more blanket on the sled. I'll wrap this around me. Mary Holiday? Yes? Where's Sleepy Slam? Well, he's on the sled. Wait, no, he isn't, is he? No, you said he was sleeping under our coats and covers. He was. Where is he now? I haven't seen him all afternoon. Could he have fallen off into the snow? He walked off into sleep. But where is he now? We've lost Sleepy Slam the lion. What was that, Mary Holiday? Was it the wind? No. It sounded like somebody lying. There it was again. I can't hear it for the wind. I'm going to look around for Sleepy Slam. Say, hey, what's that over there? Oh, where, Archie Pogli, is it Sleepy Slam? No, no, it isn't Sleepy Slam. It's a little man dressed in white. Yes, a dwarf. It must be one of the ice cream snow dwarves. There's another one behind you, Mary Holiday. Look over there, Mary Holiday. Here comes another one. Another one, and another one, and another one. Oh, there must be a hundred of them. We have swords of ice. And beards of icicles. Archie Pogli, shall we try to run from them? What do you think, Tim? Where can we run to? There are ice dwarves all around here. Ice dwarves have caught the poet, Mary Holiday. They have. Yes, and he's just smiling at them. They're shaking their swords at him. What do we do, Archie Pogli? They're ice dwarves on every side of us. Look, they're icicle beards dragging the snow. They're such small little dwarves, and they don't come to my shoulder. I don't think they can hurt as much. Oh, now they're all around you, Archie Pogli. Oh, I give up. Ice dwarves, I give up. Whoops, don't stick me with your ice swords. They're jumping up and down around Archie Pogli, Mary Holiday, who are completely surrounded with dwarves too, Mary Holiday. Tim, we are. What shall we do? What shall we do, Tim? Yes, we were surrounded, all right. We'd been taken prisoner by the ice queen's dwarves. Then I knew I heard somebody laughing in the wind. But just then, I heard it again. She was laughing because we'd lost sleepy Slim and been captured by the ice dwarves. Where the ice dwarves took us, I'll tell you tomorrow.