‘Fine wares for sale.’
Snowdrop looked out of the window and said:
‘You must go away, for I may not let anyone in.’
‘But surely you are not forbidden to look out?’ said the old woman, and she held up the poisonous comb for her to see.
It pleased the girl so much that she let herself be taken in, and opened the door. When they had settled their bargain the old woman said:
‘Now I’ll comb your hair properly for you, for once in the way.’
Poor Snowdrop thought no evil, but hardly had the comb touched her hair than the poison worked and she fell down unconscious.
‘Now, my fine lady, you’re really done for this time,’ said the wicked woman, and she made her way home as fast as she could.
Fortunately it was now near evening, and the seven Dwarfs returned home. When they saw Snowdrop lying dead on the ground, they at once suspected that her wicked step-mother had been at work again; so they searched till they found the poisonous comb, and the moment they pulled it out of her head Snowdrop came to herself again, and told them what had happened. Then they warned her once more to be on her guard, and to open the door to no one.
As soon as the Queen got home she went straight to her mirror, and asked:
‘Mirror, mirror, hanging there,
Who in all the land’s most fair?’
and it replied as before:
‘My Lady Queen, you are fair, ’tis true,
But Snowdrop is fairer far than you.
Snowdrop, who dwells with the seven little men,
Is as fair as you, as fair again.’
When she heard these words she literally trembled and shook with rage.
‘Snowdrop shall die,’ she cried; ‘yes, though it cost me my own life.’
Then she went to a little secret chamber, which no one knew of but herself, and there she made a poisonous apple. Outwardly it looked beautiful, white with red cheeks, so that everyone who saw
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it longed to eat it, but anyone who might do so would certainly die on the spot. When the apple was quite finished she stained her face and dressed herself up as a peasant, and so she went over the seven hills to the seven Dwarfs’. She knocked at the door, as usual, but Snowdrop put her head out of the window and called out:
‘I may not let anyone in, the seven Dwarfs have forbidden me to do so.’
‘Are you afraid of being poisoned?’ asked the old woman. ‘See, I will cut this apple in half. I’ll eat the white cheek and you can eat the red.’
But the apple was so cunningly made that only the red cheek was poisonous. Snowdrop longed to eat the tempting fruit, and when she saw that the peasant woman was eating it herself, she couldn’t resist the temptation any longer, and stretching out her hand she took the poisonous half. But hardly had the first bite passed her lips than she fell down dead on the ground. Then the eyes of the cruel Queen sparkled with glee, and laughing aloud she cried:
‘As white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony, this time the Dwarfs won’t be able to bring you back to life.’
When she got home she asked the mirror:
‘Mirror, mirror, hanging there,
Who in all the land’s most fair?’
and this time it replied:
‘You are most fair, my Lady Queen,
None fairer in the land, I ween.’
Then her jealous heart was at rest — at least, as much at rest as a jealous heart can ever be.
When the little Dwarfs came home in the evening they found Snowdrop lying on the ground, and she neither breathed nor stirred. They lifted her up, and looked round everywhere to see if they could find anything poisonous about. They unlaced her bodice, combed her hair, washed her with water and wine, but all in vain; the child was dead and remained dead. Then they placed her on a bier, and all the seven Dwarfs sat round it, weeping and sobbing for three whole days. At last they made up their minds to bury her, but she looked as blooming as a living being, and her cheeks were still such a lovely colour, that they said:
‘We can’t hide her away in the black ground.’
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So they had a coffin made of transparent glass, and they laid her in it, and wrote on the lid in golden letters that she was a royal Princess. Then they put the coffin on the top of the mountain, and one of the Dwarfs always remained beside it and kept watch over it.
And the very birds of the air came and bewailed Snowdrop’s death, first an owl, and then a raven, and last of all a little dove.
Snowdrop lay a long time in the coffin, and she always looked the same, just as if she were fast asleep, and she remained as white as snow, as red as blood, and her hair as black as ebony.
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Now it happened one day that a Prince came to the wood and passed by the Dwarfs’ house. He saw the coffin on the hill, with the beautiful Snowdrop inside it, and when he had read what was written on it in golden letters, he said to the Dwarf:
‘Give me the coffin. I’ll give you whatever you like for it.’
But the Dwarf said: ‘No; we wouldn’t part with it for all the gold in the world.’
‘Well, then,’ he replied, ‘give it to me, because I can’t live without Snowdrop. I will cherish and love it as my dearest possession.’
He spoke so sadly that the good Dwarfs had pity on him, and gave him the coffin, and the Prince made his servants bear it away on their shoulders. Now it happened that as they were going down the hill they stumbled over a bush, and jolted the coffin so violently that the poisonous bit of apple Snowdrop had swallowed fell out of her throat. She gradually opened her eyes, lifted up the lid of the coffin, and sat up alive and well.
‘Oh! dear me, where am I?’ she cried.
The Prince answered joyfully, ‘You are with me,’ and he told her all that had happened. adding, ‘I love you better than anyone in the whole wide world. Will you come with me to my father’s palace and be my wife?’
Snowdrop consented, and went with him, and the marriage was celebrated with great pomp and splendour.
Now Snowdrop’s wicked step-mother was one of the guests invited to the wedding feast. When she had dressed herself very gorgeously for the occasion, she went to the mirror, and said:
‘Mirror, mirror, hanging there,
Who in all the land’s most fair?’
and the mirror answered:
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‘My Lady Queen, you are fair, ’tis true,
But Snowdrop is fairer far than you.’
When the wicked woman heard these words she uttered a curse, and was beside herself with rage and mortification. At first she didn’t want to go to the wedding at all, but at the same time she felt she would never be happy till she had seen the young Queen. As she entered Snowdrop recognised her, and nearly fainted with fear; but red-hot iron shoes had been prepared for the wicked old Queen, and she was made to get into them and dance till she fell down dead.29
29 Grimm.
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THE GOLDEN GOOSE
THERE was once a man who had three sons. The youngest of them was called Dullhead, and was sneered and jeered at and snubbed on every possible opportunity.
One day it happened that the eldest son wished to go into the forest to cut wood, and before he started his mother gave him a fine rich cake and a bottle of wine, so that he might be sure not to suffer from hunger or thirst.
When he reached the forest he met a little old grey man who wished him ‘Good-morning,’ and said: ‘Do give me a piece of that cake you have got in your pocket, and let me have a draught of your wine — I am so hungry and thirsty.’
But this clever son replied: ‘If I give you my cake and wine I shall have none left for myself; you just go your own way;’ and he left the little man standing there and went further on into the forest. There he began to cut down a tree, but before long he made a false stroke with his axe, and cut his own arm so badly that he was obliged to go home and have it bound up.
Then the second son went to the forest, and his mother gave him a good cake and a bottle of wine as she had to his elder brother. He too met the little old grey man, who begged him for a morsel of cake and a draught of wine.