and I will eat the other.' Now the apple was so made up that one side
was good, though the other side was poisoned. Then Snowdrop was much
tempted to taste, for the apple looked so very nice; and when she saw
the old woman eat, she could wait no longer. But she had scarcely put
the piece into her mouth, when she fell down dead upon the ground.
'This time nothing will save thee,' said the queen; and she went home
to her glass, and at last it said:

'Thou, queen, art the fairest of all the fair.'

And then her wicked heart was glad, and as happy as such a heart could
be.

When evening came, and the dwarfs had gone home, they found Snowdrop
lying on the ground: no breath came from her lips, and they were
afraid that she was quite dead. They lifted her up, and combed her
hair, and washed her face with wine and water; but all was in vain,
for the little girl seemed quite dead. So they laid her down upon a
bier, and all seven watched and bewailed her three whole days; and
then they thought they would bury her: but her cheeks were still rosy;
and her face looked just as it did while she was alive; so they said,
'We will never bury her in the cold ground.' And they made a coffin of
glass, so that they might still look at her, and wrote upon it in
golden letters what her name was, and that she was a king's daughter.
And the coffin was set among the hills, and one of the dwarfs always
sat by it and watched. And the birds of the air came too, and bemoaned
Snowdrop; and first of all came an owl, and then a raven, and at last
a dove, and sat by her side.

And thus Snowdrop lay for a long, long time, and still only looked as
though she was asleep; for she was even now as white as snow, and as
red as blood, and as black as ebony. At last a prince came and called
at the dwarfs' house; and he saw Snowdrop, and read what was written
in golden letters. Then he offered the dwarfs money, and prayed and
besought them to let him take her away; but they said, 'We will not
part with her for all the gold in the world.' At last, however, they
had pity on him, and gave him the coffin; but the moment he lifted it
up to carry it home with him, the piece of apple fell from between her
lips, and Snowdrop awoke, and said, 'Where am I?' And the prince said,
'Thou art quite safe with me.'

Then he told her all that had happened, and said, 'I love you far
better than all the world; so come with me to my father's palace, and
you shall be my wife.' And Snowdrop consented, and went home with the
prince; and everything was got ready with great pomp and splendour for
their wedding.

To the feast was asked, among the rest, Snowdrop's old enemy the
queen; and as she was dressing herself in fine rich clothes, she
looked in the glass and said:

'Tell me, glass, tell me true!
Of all the ladies in the land,
Who is fairest, tell me, who?'

And the glass answered:

'Thou, lady, art loveliest here, I ween;
But lovelier far is the new-made queen.'

When she heard this she started with rage; but her envy and curiosity
were so great, that she could not help setting out to see the bride.
And when she got there, and saw that it was no other than Snowdrop,
who, as she thought, had been dead a long while, she choked with rage,
and fell down and died: but Snowdrop and the prince lived and reigned
happily over that land many, many years; and sometimes they went up
into the mountains, and paid a visit to the little dwarfs, who had
been so kind to Snowdrop in her time of need.



THE PINK

There was once upon a time a queen to whom God had given no children.
Every morning she went into the garden and prayed to God in heaven to
bestow on her a son or a daughter. Then an angel from heaven came to
her and said: 'Be at rest, you shall have a son with the power of
wishing, so that whatsoever in the world he wishes for, that shall he
have.' Then she went to the king, and told him the joyful tidings, and
when the time was come she gave birth to a son, and the king was
filled with gladness.

Every morning she went with the child to the garden where the wild
beasts were kept, and washed herself there in a clear stream. It
happened once when the child was a little older, that it was lying in
her arms and she fell asleep. Then came the old cook, who knew that
the child had the power of wishing, and stole it away, and he took a
hen, and cut it in pieces, and dropped some of its blood on the
queen's apron and on her dress. Then he carried the child away to a
secret place, where a nurse was obliged to suckle it, and he ran to
the king and accused the queen of having allowed her child to be taken
from her by the wild beasts. When the king saw the blood on her apron,
he believed this, fell into such a passion that he ordered a high
tower to be built, in which neither sun nor moon could be seen and had
his wife put into it, and walled up. Here she was to stay for seven
years without meat or drink, and die of hunger. But God sent two
angels from heaven in the shape of white doves, which flew to her
twice a day, and carried her food until the seven years were over.

The cook, however, thought to himself: 'If the child has the power of


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