Favorite Fairy Tales | Page 4

so artfully made that the red cheeks alone were
poisoned.) Snow-White very much wished for the beautiful apple, and
when she saw the woman eating the core she could no longer resist, but,
stretching out her hand, took the poisoned part. Scarcely had she placed
a piece in her mouth when she fell down dead upon the ground. Then
the Queen, looking at her with glittering eyes, and laughing bitterly,
exclaimed, "White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony! This time the
Dwarfs cannot reawaken you."
When she reached home and consulted her mirror--
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"
it answered:
"The Queen is fairest of the day."
[Illustration]
Then her envious heart was at rest, as peacefully as an envious heart
can rest.
When the little Dwarfs returned home in the evening they found
Snow-White lying on the ground, and there appeared to be no life in
her body; she seemed to be quite dead. They raised her up, and tried if
they could find anything poisonous. They unlaced her, and even
uncombed her hair, and washed her with water and with wine. But
nothing availed: the dear child was really and truly dead.
Then they laid her upon a bier, and all seven placed themselves around
it, and wept and wept for three days without ceasing. Then they
prepared to bury her. But she looked still fresh and life-like, and even
her red cheeks had not deserted her, so they said to one another, "We
cannot bury her in the black ground." Then they ordered a case to be
made of glass. In this they could see the body on all sides, and the
Dwarfs wrote her name with golden letters upon the glass, saying that

she was a King's daughter. Now they placed the glass case upon the
ledge on a rock, and one of them always remained by it watching. Even
the birds bewailed the loss of Snow-White; first came an owl, then a
raven, and last of all a dove.
For a long time Snow-White lay peacefully in her case, and changed
not, but looked as if she were only asleep, for she was still white as
snow, red as blood, and black-haired as ebony. By and by it happened
that a King's son was traveling in the forest, and came to the Dwarfs'
house to pass the night. He soon saw the glass case upon the rock, and
the beautiful maiden lying within, and he read also the golden
inscription.
When he had examined it, he said to the Dwarfs, "Let me have this case,
and I will pay what you like for it."
But the Dwarfs replied, "We will not sell it for all the gold in the
world."
"Then give it to me," said the Prince; "for I cannot live without
Snow-White. I will honor and protect her as long as I live."
When the Dwarfs saw that he was so much in earnest, they pitied him,
and at last gave him the case, and the Prince ordered it to be carried
away on the shoulders of his attendants. Presently it happened that they
stumbled over a rut, and with the shock the piece of poisoned apple
which lay in Snow-White's mouth fell out. Very soon she opened her
eyes, and raising the lid of the glass case, she rose up and asked,
"Where am I?"
Full of joy, the Prince answered, "You are safe with me." And he told
to her what she had suffered, and how he would rather have her than
any other for his wife, and he asked her to accompany him home to the
castle of the King his father. Snow-White consented, and when they
arrived there they were married with great splendor and magnificence.
Snow-White's stepmother was also invited to the wedding, and when
she was dressed in all her finery to go, she first stepped in front of her

mirror and asked:
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest of us all?"
and it replied:
"The Queen was fairest yesterday; The Prince's bride is now, they say."
At these words the Queen was in a fury, and was so terribly mortified
that she knew not what to do with herself. At first she resolved not to
go to the wedding, but she could not resist the wish to see the Princess.
So she went; but as soon as she saw the bride she recognized
Snow-White, and was so terrified with rage and astonishment that she
rushed out of the castle and was never heard of again.
[Illustration]

THE UGLY DUCKLING
[Illustration]
It was beautiful in the country. It was summertime. The wheat was
yellow, the oats were green, the hay was stacked up in the green