On the third day of the festivities, once her parents and sisters were gone, Cinderella went to her mother’s grave and said to the tree:
“Dear little tree, quiver and quaver,
Be my lifesaver.”
Whereupon the birds tossed down a gown more glamorous and glittering than any garment anyone had ever worn and slippers woven of gold. And when she arrived at the ball draped in this gown she looked so lovely everyone was speechless. The prince danced only with her, and when someone asked to take a spin, he said, “She’s my dance partner.”
Come evening, Cinderella prepared to leave, and the prince wanted to accompany her home, but she slipped away so swiftly he could not follow. But this time the prince was sly and had the stairway coated with pitch, so as she scampered down, the girl’s left slipper stayed stuck to it. The prince held on to it – it was small and dainty and woven all of gold. The next day he went to the man, Cinderella’s father, and said to him, “No one else will be my bride but she whose foot fits in this slipper.”
The stepsisters were overjoyed, for they had lovely feet. The eldest took the shoe into her room to try it on with her mother standing by. But she could not fit in her big toe, the shoe was just too small. So her mother handed her a knife. “Hack off your toes – once you’re queen, you’ll never have to go anywhere on foot again.”
The girl cut off her toes, swallowed the pain, and went out to greet the prince. Whereupon he lifted her onto his horse and rode off with her as his bride. But they had to ride past the grave, where two doves sat on the treetop and called out:
“Coo, caroo, coo,
There’s blood in the shoe:
The shoe is too tight,
The bride is not right.”
Whereupon the prince looked at her foot and saw blood spurting out. He turned his horse around, brought the false bride back home, said she was a fraud and that the other sister should try on the shoe.
Then her sister took the shoe to her room to try to squeeze her toes in, but her heel stuck out. Her mother handed her a knife and said, “Hack off a piece of your heel – once you’re queen, you’ll nevermore have to go anywhere on foot.”
So the second sister cut off a piece of her heel, forced her foot into the shoe, swallowed her pain, and went out to see the prince. And he took her as his bride and rode off with her. As they went riding by the tree, two doves called out:
“Coo, caroo, coo,
There’s blood in the shoe:
The shoe is too tight,
The bride is not right.”
The prince looked down at her foot and saw blood spurting out, and that her white stockings were stained red. He turned his horse around and brought the false bride back. “She’s not the right one either,” he said. “Don’t you have another daughter?”
“No,” said the man, “except for Cinderella, a filthy little ragamuffin, born of my dead wife – but she couldn’t possibly be your bride.”
The prince said to send her out. But the stepmother replied, “Oh no, she’s much too filthy. Such a creature dare not be seen.”
But the prince insisted, and Cinderella was called in. First she washed her hands and face, then she came forth and bowed before the prince, who held out the golden slipper. Whereupon she sat down on a stool, pulled her left foot out of her heavy wooden clog, and slipped it into the slipper, which fit like it had been made to measure. And when she stood up and the prince looked her in the face, he immediately recognized the lovely girl who had danced with him and cried out, “This is my true bride!”
The stepmother and the two stepsisters were horrified and turned green with envy. But the prince took Cinderella on his horse and rode off with her. When they passed the tree beside her mother’s grave, the two white doves called out:
“Coo, caroo, coo,
No blood in the shoe:
The shoe is not too small,
She’s your true bride you met at the ball.”
And once they’d finished cooing, they flew down and sat themselves on Cinderella’s shoulders, one on her right, the other on her left, and there they stayed perched.
When the wedding was to be celebrated, the two false sisters hoped to curry favor with Cinderella and share her happiness. But when the bride and groom entered the church, the eldest sister to Cinderella’s right, the youngest to her left, the doves flew down and pecked their eyes out. And so they were punished for their baseness and deceit and were blind until their dying days.
SNOW WHITE
Once in the dead of winter, when the snowflakes fell like feathers from the sky, a queen sat sewing at her window, framed in black ebony. And as she sewed and happened to glance up at the snow, she pricked her finger with the sewing needle and three drops of blood stained the snow on the window ledge. And because the red looked so lovely against the white snow, she thought to herself, If only I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of my window frame. Not long after that she did indeed give birth to a daughter with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony, and so she called her Snow White. But no sooner was the child born than the queen died.