Cinderella | Page 6

little slippers, fellow to that she dropped. The guards at the
palace gate were asked if they had not seen a Prinecess go out.
They said they had seen nobody go out but a young girl, very meanly
dressed, and who had more of the air of a poor country girl than a
gentlewoman.
When the two sisters returned from the ball Cinderella asked them if
they had been well diverted and if the beautiful Princess had been there.
They told her yes, but that she hurried away immediately when the
clock struck twelve, and with so much haste that she dropped one of
her little glass slippers, the prettiest in the world, which the King's son
had taken up; that he had done nothing but look at her all the time at the
ball, and that most certainly he was very much in love with the
beautiful person who owned the glass slipper.
What they said was very true, for a few days after the King's son
caused it to be proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, that he would marry
her whose foot this slipper would just fit. They whom he employed
began to try it upon the Princesses, then the Duchesses and all the
Court, but in vain. It was brought to the two sisters, who did all they
possibly could to thrust their feet into the slipper, but they could not
effect it.
On the following morning there was a great noise of trumpets and
drums, and a procession passed through the town, at the head of which
rode the King's son. Behind him came a herald, bearing a velvet
cushion, upon which rested a little glass slipper. The herald blew a blast
upon the trumpet, and then read a proclamation saying that the King's
son would wed any lady in the land who could fit the slipper upon her
foot, if she could produce another to match it.
Of course, the sisters tried to squeeze their feet into the slipper, but it
was of no use--they were much too large. Then Cinderella shyly

begged that she might try. How the sisters laughed with scorn when the
Prince knelt to fit the slipper on the cinder maid's foot; but what was
their surprise when it slipped on with the greatest ease, and the next
moment Cinderella produced the other from her pocket! Once more she
stood in the slippers, and once more the sisters saw before them the
lovely Princess who was to be the Prince's bride. For at the touch of the
magic shoes the little gray frock disappeared forever, and in place of it
she wore the beautiful robe the fairy Godmother had given to her.
The sisters hung their heads with sorrow and vexation; but kind little
Cinderella put her arms round their necks, kissed them, and forgave
them for all their unkindness, so that they could not help but love her.
The Prince could not bear to part from his little love again, so he
carried her back to the palace in his grand coach, and they were married
that very day. Cinderella's stepsisters were present at the feast, but in
the place of honor sat the fairy Godmother.
So the poor little cinder maid married the Prince, and in time they came
to be King and Queen, and lived happily ever after.

FANNY'S TELEPHONE ORDER.
Little Fanny Desmond was a dear child, and, like a good many other
little children, she liked to do whatever she saw the grown people do.
She would listen with great interest when she saw her mother use the
telephone. She was especially surprised when her mother ordered
things, and later in the day they would be brought to the house.
"I wish I had a telephone of my own," she said to her papa. "Mama just
puts her mouth up to that funny thing, and gets whatever she asks for.
Yesterday she asked somebody to send us ice-cream for dinner, and
sure enough, it came."
Papa laughed. "It does seem a very convenient thing," he said. "I will
try to arrange one for you." So papa took a horn which had been put
away in a closet and hung it up where Fanny could talk into it. "There,
that shall be your own private telephone," he said.
"Now, shall I get whatever I ask for?" said Fanny.
"Not if you ask for impossible things," replied her papa.
"But what are impossible things?" asked Fanny.
"Well," laughed papa, "I think if you should ask for the moon you
would not get it."

"But I don't want the moon," said Fanny.
"Ask for something before I go down-town," said papa.
Fanny thought a moment, and then spoke up quite distinctly:
"Please send me some peppermints, and some new shoes