Cinderella

She was buried in the garden. The little girl was a pious and kind girl, and every day she went to her mother's grave and wept. Winter came, and the snow covered her mother's grave with a white blanket. The spring breeze blows, and the sun removes the silver from the grave. Winter turned to spring, and his father married another wife.

The new wife came to set up home with her two daughters from her previous birth. They are beautiful on the outside, but on the inside they are very ugly and evil. When they came, it was the beginning of the poor little girl's misery. They said: "What is such a useless git to do in the hall? Whoever wants bread must earn it, and go to the kitchen and be a kitchen maid! ' Then he took off her pretty clothes, dressed her in an old grey coat, and, mocking her mischievously, drove her into the kitchen. She was forced to do hard work. Rising before dawn to fetch water, fire, cook, wash, and suffer the neglect and torture of their sisters. At night, when she was so tired that she had no bed to sleep in, she had to sleep in the ashes by the stove, so that she was covered with ashes, dirty and ugly, and for that reason they called her Cinderella.

Once, when a father was going to the fair, he asked his wife's two daughters what he would bring for them. The first one said, "I want pretty clothes." The second cried, "I want pearls and diamonds." Then he said to his daughter, "What do you want, my child?" Cinderella said, "Dear Father, break me the first twig that touches your hat on your way home." When the father came back, he brought the first two daughters beautiful clothes and pearls and diamonds that they wanted. On his way through a thick undergrowth, a hazel twig touched him and nearly took off his hat, so he broke it off and took it with him. When he got home, he gave the branch to his daughter, who took it to her mother's grave and planted it near it. Three times a day she went to the grave and wept, and every time she cried, her tears fell on the branch and watered it, so that it soon grew into a beautiful tree. Soon a bird came to build a nest in a tree, and she began to talk to it. Then the bird brought her whatever she wanted.

In order to choose a betrothed for his son, the king planned to hold a great banquet for three days, and invited many beautiful young girls to attend. The prince was going to choose one of these girls to be his bride. Cinderella's two sisters were also invited to the party. They called her and said, "Now comb our hair, shine our shoes, and tie our belts. We are going to the King's ball." When she had dressed them as they wanted, she could not help crying, for she wanted to go to the ball herself. She begged her stepmother to let her go, but the stepmother said, "Oh! Cinderella, do you want to go? What will you wear? You haven't got a dress, and you can't even dance. What ball do you want to go to?" At last the stepmother said, "I will pour this bowl full of peas into the ash heap. If you pick them all out in two hours, you may go to the party." With that, she dumped a bowl of beans into the ashes and walked away. Cinderella could do nothing, so she ran out the back door into the garden and shouted:

"Doves and turtledoves that flit across the sky,

Fly!!!! Fly over here!

My merry bird friends,

Fly!!!! Fly here as fast as you can!

I need you guys to help me,

Pick the peas out of the ashes!"

First came two white doves through the kitchen window, then two turtledoves, and then all the birds in the sky twittered and fluttered to the ashes. The little dove bent her head and began to pick up the ashes, one by one, and kept on picking! The other birds began to pick, one by one, and kept on picking! They took all the good beans out of the ashes and put them into a plate, and finished them in an hour. After she thanked them, the birds flew away from the window. Excited, she went to her stepmother with a tray, thinking that she would go to the ball. But she said, "No, no! You dirty girl, you have no dress, you can't dance, you can't go." Cinderella begged her to go again. The stepmother said this time, "If you can pick these two plates of peas out of the ashes in an hour, you may go." Thinking that this time she would get rid of Cinderella, she poured two plates of peas into the ash heap, stirred them for a while, and then walked away triumphantly. But the little girl ran into the garden at the back of the house and cried out, as before:

"Doves and turtledoves that flit across the sky,

Fly!!!! Fly over here!

My merry bird friends,

Fly!!!! Fly here as fast as you can!

I need you guys to help me,

Pick the peas out of the ashes!"

First came two white doves through the kitchen window, then two turtledoves, and then all the birds in the sky twittered and fluttered to the ashes. The little dove bent her head and began to pick up the ashes, one by one, and kept on picking! The other birds began to pick, one by one, and kept on picking! They took all the good beans out of the ashes and put them on the plate, this time in half an hour. When the birds had flown away, Cinderella went to her stepmother with the tray, and was so excited that she thought she would go to the ball. But the stepmother said, "Never mind! Don't beat a dead horse. You're not going. You don't have a dress. You can't dance. You'll only embarrass us." Then they set off for the party with her two daughters.

Now all the family had gone away, and Cinderella was left alone under the hazel tree, weeping.

"The hazel tree! Please help me,

Please shake it,

Shake gold and silver down for me."

Her friend, the bird, flew out of the tree and brought her a dress of gold and silver, and a pair of bright silk dancing shoes. After she had dressed and put on her dress, Cinderella came to the ballroom after her two sisters. She looked so elegant and pretty and beautiful in her luxurious dress. They did not recognize her and thought she must be a strange princess. They did not think that she was Cinderella at all. They thought that Cinderella was still at home in the ashes.

When the prince saw her, he quickly came up to her, put his arm around her, and asked her to dance. He never danced with another girl again. He never let go of her. Whenever she was asked to dance, the prince would say, "This lady is dancing with me." Together they danced till late, and she remembered to go home. The prince wanted to know where the beautiful girl lived, so he said, "Let me take you home." Cinderella apparently agreed, but when he wasn't looking, she slipped away and ran home. The prince came after her, so she jumped into the pigeon-house and closed the door. The prince waited, and would not leave until his father came home, when he came forward and told him that the unnamed girl he had met at the ball was hiding in the pigeon-house. When they broke down the pigeon door, there was no one inside, and he had to go back to the palace in despair. When her parents came in, Cinderella was lying in her dirty clothes on the edge of the ash heap, as she had always lain there, and the little dim oil lamp was swinging in the hole in the wall above the chimney post. As a matter of fact, Cinderella had just gone quickly through the pigeon-house to the hazel tree, and had taken off her beautiful dresses, put them back in the tree, and let the birds carry them away, while she went back into the house and sat on the ash heap, and put on her grey coat.