I am cold. I have always been cold. I must stay in the cold or I’ll melt. In the winter, I live in the forest. In the summer, I come inside, and I stay in the cold cellar.

My brother is the opposite. He must have heat. He spends his summers outside, and, in the winter, he comes inside and turns the house into a furnace.

Needless to say, we have lived separate lives, but now that our parents have died, we are alone with one another. “I love you with all my heart,” he says.

We need to find a way to travel together. I have an idea. We’ll both wear fur coats. In his coat, he will not feel my chill, and in my coat, I will not feel his heat.

The Snow-daughter in The Snow-Daughter and the Fire-Son, Yellow Fairy Book. Illustration by H.J. Ford