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her, and strewing peas and lentils among the ashes, and setting her
to pick them up. In the evenings, when she was quite tired out with
her hard day’s work, she had no bed to lie on, but was obliged to
rest on the hearth among the cinders. And because she always
looked dusty and dirty, as if she had slept in the cinders, they
named her Cinderella.
It happened one day that the father went to the fair, and he asked
his two stepdaughters what he should bring back for them. “Fine
clothes!” said one. “Pearls and jewels!” said the other. “But what
will you have, Cinderella?” said he. “The first twig, father, that
strikes against your hat on the way home; that is what I should like
you to bring me.” So he bought for the two step-daughters fine
clothes, pearls, and jewels, and on his way back, as he rode
through a green lane, a hazel twig struck against his hat; and he
broke it off and carried it home with him. And when he reached
home he gave to the step-daughters what they had wished for, and
to Cinderella he gave the hazel twig. She thanked him, and went to
her mother’s grave, and planted this twig there, weeping so
bitterly that the tears fell upon it and watered it, and it flourished
and became a fine tree. Cinderella went to see it three times a day,
and wept and prayed, and each time a white bird rose up from the
tree, and if she uttered any wish the bird brought her whatever she
had wished for.
Now it came to pass that the King ordained a festival that should
last for three days, and to which all the beautiful young women of
that country were bidden, so that the King’s son might choose a
bride from among them. When the two stepdaughters heard that
they too were bidden to appear, they felt very pleased, and they
called Cinderella and said, “Comb our hair, brush our shoes, and
make our buckles fast, we are going to the wedding feast at the
King’s castle.” When she heard this, Cinderella could not help
crying, for she too would have liked to go to the dance, and she
begged her step-mother to allow her.
“What! You Cinderella!” said she, “in all your dust and dirt, you
want to go to the festival! you that have no dress and no shoes! you
want to dance!” But as she persisted in asking, at last the step-
mother said, “I have strewed a dishful of lentils in the ashes, and if
you can pick them all up again in two hours you may go with us.”
Then the maiden went to the back-door that led into the garden,
and called out, “O gentle doves, O turtle-doves, And all the birds
that be, The lentils that in ashes lie Come and pick up for me! The
good must be put in the dish, The bad you may eat if you wish.”
Then there came to the kitchen-window two white doves, and after