“I can let in this respectable old woman,” thought Snow-white; “she will not harm me.”  So she unbolted the door, and told her to come in.  Oh, how delighted Snow-white was with the pretty things; she bought several trinkets, and a beautiful silk lace for her stays, but she did not see the evil eye of the old woman who was watching her.  Presently she said, “Child, come here; I will show you how to lace your stays properly.”  Snow-white had no suspicion, so she placed herself before the old woman that she might lace her stays.  But no sooner was the lace in the holes than she began to lace so fast and pull so tight that Snow-white could not breathe, and presently fell down at her feet as if dead.

“Now you are beautiful indeed,” said the woman, and, fancying she heard footsteps, she rushed away as quickly as she could.

Not long after, the seven dwarfs came home, and they were terribly frightened to see dear little Snow-white lying on the ground without motion, as if she were dead.  They lifted her up, and saw in a moment that her stays had been laced too tight Quickly they cut the stay-lace in two, till Snow-white began to breathe a little, and after a time was restored to life.  But when the dwarfs heard what had happened, they said:  “That old market-woman was no other than your wicked stepmother.  Snow-white, you must never again let anyone in while we are not with you.”

The wicked queen when she returned home, after, as she thought, killing Snow-white, went to her looking-glass and asked: 

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

Then answered the mirror: 

  “Queen, thou art not the fairest now;
   Snow-white over the mountain’s brow
   A thousand times fairer is than thou.”

When she heard this she was so terrified that the blood rushed to her heart, for she knew that after all she had done Snow-white was still alive.  “I must think of something else,” she said to herself, “to get rid of that odious child.”

Now this wicked queen had some knowledge of witchcraft, and she knew how to poison a comb, so that whoever used it would fall dead.  This the wicked stepmother soon got ready, and dressing herself again like an old woman, but quite different from the last, she started off to travel over the mountains to the dwarfs’ cottage.

When Snow-white heard the old cry, “Goods to sell, fine goods to sell,” she looked out of the window and said: 

“Go away, go away; I must not let you in.”

“Look at this, then,” said the woman; “you shall have it for your own if you like,” and she held up before the child’s eyes the bright tortoise-shell comb which she had poisoned.

Poor Snow-white could not refuse such a present, so she opened the door and let the woman in, quite forgetting the advice of the dwarfs.  After she had bought a few things, the old woman said, “Let me try this comb in your hair; it is so fine it will make it beautifully smooth and glossy.”