My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales | Page 8

one hour the work was done, and all flew out again at the windows.
Then Cinderella brought the dish to her mother, overjoyed at the
thought that now she should go to the feast. But she said, "No, no! Girl,
you have no clothes and cannot dance, you shall not go." And when
Cinderella begged very hard to go, she said, "If you can in one hour's
time pick two of these dishes of peas out of the ashes, you shall go
too." And thus she thought she should at last get rid of her. So she
shook two dishes of peas into the ashes; but the little maiden went out
into the garden at the back of the house, and cried as before--
"Hither, hither, through the sky. Turtle-doves and linnets, fly!
Blackbird, thrush, and chaffinch gay, Hither, hither, haste away! One
and all, come help me quick, Haste ye, haste ye--pick, pick, pick!"
Then first came two white doves in at the kitchen window; and next
came the turtle-doves; and after them all the little birds under heaven
came chirping and hopping about, and flew down about the ashes; and
the little doves put their heads down and set to work, pick, pick, pick;
and then the others began to pick, pick, pick; and they put all the good
grain into the dishes, and left all the ashes, Before half-an-hour's time
all was done, and out they flew again. And then Cinderella took the
dishes to her mother, rejoicing to think that she should now go to the
ball. But her mother said, "It is all of no use, you cannot go, you have

no clothes, and cannot dance, and you would only put us to shame:"
and off she went with her two daughters to the feast.
Now when all were gone, and nobody left at home, Cinderella went
sorrowfully and sat down under the hazel-tree, and cried out--
"Shake, shake, hazel tree, Gold and silver over me!"
Then her friend the bird flew out of the tree and brought a gold and
silver dress for her, and slippers of spangled silk; and she put them on,
and followed her sisters to the feast. But they did not know her, and
thought it must be some strange princess, she looked so fine and
beautiful in her rich clothes; and they never once thought of Cinderella,
but took for granted that she was safe at home in the dirt.
[Illustration: Painted by Jennie Harbour CINDERELLA]
[Illustration]
The king's son soon came up to her, and took her by the hand and
danced with her and no one else; and he never left her hand; but when
any one else came to ask her to dance, he said, "This lady is dancing
with me." Thus they danced till a late hour of the night, and then she
wanted to go home: and the king's son said, "I shall go and take care of
you to your home;" for he wanted to see where the beautiful maid lived.
But she slipped away from him unawares, and ran off towards home,
and the prince followed her; but she jumped up into the pigeon-house
and shut the door. Then he waited till her father came home, and told
him that the unknown maiden who had been at the feast had hidden
herself in the pigeon-house. But when they had broken open the door
they found no one within; and as they came back into the house,
Cinderella lay as she always did, in her dirty frock by the ashes, and her
dim little lamp burnt in the chimney; for she had run as quickly as she
could through the pigeon-house and on to the hazel-tree, and had there
taken off her beautiful clothes, and laid them beneath the tree, that the
bird might carry them away, and had seated herself amid the ashes
again in her little old frock.
The next day, when the feast was again held, and her father, mother,
and sisters were gone, Cinderella went to the hazel tree, and said--
"Shake, shake, hazel tree, Gold and silver over me!"
And the bird came and brought a still finer dress than the one she had
worn the day before. And when she came in it to the ball, every one
wondered at her beauty; but the king's son, who was waiting for her,

took her by the hand, and danced with her; and when any one asked her
to dance, he said as before, "This lady is dancing with me." When night
came she wanted to go home; and the king's son followed her as before,
that he might see into what house she went; but she sprang away from
him, all at once, into the garden behind her father's house.