“Oh! where am I?” she cried.

Full of joy, the king’s son approached her, and said, “Dear Snow-white, you are safe; you are with me.”

Then he related to her all that had happened, and what the little dwarfs had told him about her, and said at last, “I love you better than all in the world besides, dear little Snow-white, and you must come with me to my father’s castle and be my wife.”

Then was Snow-white taken out of the coffin and placed in a carriage to travel with the prince, and the king was so pleased with his son’s choice that the marriage was soon after celebrated with great pomp and magnificence.

Now it happened that the stepmother of Snow-white was invited, among other guests, to the wedding-feast.  Before she left her house she stood in all her rich dress before the magic mirror to admire her own appearance, but she could not help saying;

    “Mirror, mirror on the wall,
     Am I most beautiful of all?”

Then to her surprise the mirror replied: 

  “Fair queen, thou art the fairest here,
     But at the palace, now,
   The bride will prove a thousand times
     More beautiful than thou.”

Then the wicked woman uttered a curse, and was so dreadfully alarmed that she knew not what to do.  At first she declared she would not go to this wedding at all, but she felt it impossible to rest until she had seen the bride, so she determined to go.  But what was her astonishment and vexation when she recognised in the young bride Snow-white herself, now grown a charming young woman, and richly dressed in royal robes!  Her rage and terror were so great that she stood still and could not move for some minutes.  At last she went into the ballroom, but the slippers she wore were to her as iron bands full of coals of fire, in which she was obliged to dance.  And so in the red, glowing shoes she continued to dance till she fell dead on the floor, a sad example of envy and jealousy.

CHAPTER III

THE ENCHANTED STAG

There were once a brother and sister who loved each other dearly; their mother was dead, and their father had married again a woman who was most unkind and cruel to them.  One day the boy took his sister’s hand, and said to her, “Dear little sister, since our mother died we have not had one happy hour.  Our stepmother gives us dry hard crusts for dinner and supper; she often knocks us about, and threatens to kick us out of the house.  Even the little dogs under the table fare better than we do, for she often throws them nice pieces to eat.  Heaven pity us!  Oh, if our dear mother knew!  Come, let us go out into the wide world!”

So they went out, and wandered over fields and meadows the whole day till evening.  At last they found themselves in a large forest; it began to rain, and the little sister said, “See, brother, heaven and our hearts weep together.”  At last, tired out with hunger and sorrow, and the long journey, they crept into a hollow tree, laid themselves down, and slept till morning.