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| Snow white :) |
Once upon a time, when the snow lay thick and white on the ground, a Queen sat by her palace window, sewing her husband's shirts. As she sewed she pricked her finger, and a drop of blood fell on to the snow gathered on the windowsill. The Queen looked at the red drops on the white snow, and at the ebony black frame of her window and liking the way the colours looked together, thought to herself, 'I wish I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, as black as ebony.' Soon a little daughter was born to her, with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony. She called her daughter Snow White. A few days after Snow White's birth the Queen died.
A year later the King, Snow White's father, married again. The new Queen was very beautiful, but so vain and haughty that she could not bear anyone to be more beautiful than her.
Now, the Queen had a magic mirror, that could talk, and would answer truthfully any question that it was asked. The vain Queen would look into the mirror and ask,"Mirror, mirror on the wall,who is the fairest of them all?"
And the mirror would reply, "You are the fairest, lady Queen."
Then she would be happy, for she knew the mirror always spoke the truth.
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| the Queen |
Meanwhile Snow White was growing up, and the older she grew the prettier she became, so that by the time she was seven years old, she was far more beautiful than the Queen.
One day the Queen, as always, asked her magic mirror,"Mirror, mirror on the wall,who is the fairest of them all?"
This time the mirror gave a different answer. It said, "You were the fairest, lady Queen. Snow White is fairest now, I ween.
The Queen began hating Snow White. As Snow White grew prettier with every passing day, the Queen's jealousy and anger grew. At last unable to bear Snow White's beauty any longer, she called her Huntsman and said to him, 'Take the child into the forest, and kill her, and bring back her heart and her tongue as proof that she is dead.'
The Huntsman did as the Queen asked - he took the little girl into the forest and prepared to kill her. 'Please don't kill me,' cried Snow White, looking in terror at his big sharp knife. 'I will run away into the forest and never come back again.' The Huntsman relented, and let her go. The child ran off through the trees deep into the forest. 'The wild beasts will kill you, you poor child,' thought the Huntsman to himself. But somehow he was glad he had not killed the little princess. Just then a wild boar came blundering through the bushes. The Huntsman killed the animal, and cutting out his heart and tongue took it to the Queen, as proof that Snow White was dead. The Queen rejoiced and was happy that she was once again the fairest of them all.
Meanwhile Snow White ran through the forest, deeper and deeper, till she could run no more. It was getting dark, and Snow White was frightened, when she saw a little cottage in a clearing. She knocked, but no one answered. Tired and afraid of staying out in the forest, she pushed open the door and went in.
Inside, the cottage was neat and tidy and shining clean, except that everything in it was very tiny, as though made for children. The pots and pans on the kitchen shelves had been scrubbed and polished till she shone. A table with seven little chairs around it was laid for dinner, with seven little bowls and seven little plates, and knives and spoons and forks. Against the wall were seven little beds in a row, each covered with snow-white sheets. Snow White, hungry and thirsty, ate a spoonful of porridge from each bowl, nibbled a morsel of bread from each plate, drank a sip of wine from each glass, because she did not want to eat up all the food from one place. Then she lay down on one of the beds for a nap - but it was too hard. She tried another - that was too soft, the third too short, the fourth too long, but the seventh was just right. Snow White curled up in the seventh bed and fell fast asleep.
Now the cottage belonged to the Seven Dwarfs, who would dig for ore all day in the mountains, and come back to their cottage at night. As it became dark, the dwarfs returned. They lit seven little lamps and looked around. They saw at once that everything was not as they had left it. 'Someone has been here,' they cried. 'Someone has nibbled at my bread,' cried one. 'Someone has tasted my porridge,' cried another. 'Someone has sipped my wine,' cried a third. 'Someone has used my fork,' grumbled a fourth. 'Someone has used my spoon,' cried a fifth. 'Someone has slept in my bed,' cried a sixth. And 'Someone IS sleeping in my bed,' cried the seventh. The seven dwarfs crowded round the bed and stared at Snow White. She looked so beautiful that the dwarfs decided not to wake her. They moved away on tiptoe and let her sleep.
When morning came, Snow White awoke, and seeing the Seven Dwarfs, jumped out of bed in a fright. But the dwarfs smiled at her and were very kind. So she told them her sad story - how she was the princess Snow White, how her stepmother had tried to kill her, and how the Huntsman had let her go, to run into the forest and to never go back home again. The dwarfs felt sorry for the pretty little princess. 'Will you look after our house, wash, clean, sew and cook for us? If you do we shall keep you safe here with us and look after you.'
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| With seven Dwarfs |
Snow White agreed, and so she began living with the Seven Dwarfs in their cottage in the forest. Every morning the dwarfs would leave for their work in the mountains, bidding Snow White good-bye and telling her to be careful. She would wash and clean and tidy the cottage all day, and have their dinner ready hot and steaming for them when they returned in the evening. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were happy and content.
One day Snow White's stepmother the Queen pulled out her magic mirror and asked again, "Mirror, mirror on the wall,who is the fairest of them all?"
The mirror replied:
You were the fairest, lady Queen
Snow White is fairest now, I ween.
In a cottage with the Seven Dwarfs
She lives amid the forest green.
Snow White is fairest now, I ween.
In a cottage with the Seven Dwarfs
She lives amid the forest green.
to be continued ...
