Once upon a time, there was a rich man's wife who became very ill, and on her deathbed, she called her only daughter to her side and said, "Good girl, mom will watch over you and bless you in the nine springs when she goes." After saying this she closed her eyes and died.
She was buried in the garden, and the little girl, who was a pious and kind girl, went to her mother's grave every day to weep. Winter came and the snow covered her mother's grave with a white blanket. When the spring breeze blew, the sun removed the silver from the grave again. Winter came and went, people moved on, and his father took another wife.
The new wife came to make her home with her two daughters. They were beautiful on the outside, but very ugly and evil on the inside. The time of their arrival was the beginning of the poor little girl's suffering. They said: "What is the use of such a useless bucket in the hall? Whoever wants to eat bread must earn it himself, and go to the kitchen and become a kitchen maid!" And after saying this, he took off her beautiful dress, and put on her an old gray coat, and mocked her mischievously, and drove her into the kitchen. She was forced to do hard work. Every day at dawn she got up to carry water, build a fire, cook and wash, and she had to put up with the sisters' indifference and torment toward her. At night, when she was exhausted, she did not even have a bed to sleep on, and had to sleep in the ashes beside the stove, which covered her with ashes, dirty and unsightly, and for this reason they called her Cinderella.
On one occasion the father was going to the market-place, and he asked his wife's two daughters what he should bring them back. The first said, "I want beautiful clothes." The second called out, "I want pearls and diamonds." Then he said to his own daughter, "What do you want, child?" Cinderella said, "Dear father, just fold me the first branch that touched your hat on your way home." When the father returned, he brought back for the first two daughters as many beautiful dresses and pearls and diamonds as they wanted. On the way, as he was going through a thick undergrowth, a hazel branch touched him and almost swept his hat off, so he broke it off and took it with him. When he returned home he gave the branch to his daughter, and she took it to her mother's grave and planted it beside it. Three times a day she went to the grave and cried, and each time she cried sadly, the tears kept dripping down on the branch, watering it so that it soon grew into a big, beautiful tree. Soon a little bird came to build a nest in the tree, and she talked with it. Then whatever she wanted, the little bird brought it to her.
The king, in order to choose a fiancée for his son, was going to hold a grand banquet for three days, to which a number of beautiful young girls were invited. The prince intended to choose one of these girls to be his bride. Cinderella's two sisters were also invited. They called her to them and said, "Now come and brush our hair, polish our shoes, and tie our belts, for we are going to the ball given by the king." When she had finished dressing them as they asked, she could not help crying, for she herself wanted to go to the ball. She begged her stepmother to let her go, but she said, "Ouch! Cinderella, you want to go too? What are you going to wear? You don't even have a gown, and you don't even know how to dance, what kind of ball do you want to go to?" Cinderella kept begging and begging, and in order to get rid of her, her stepmother finally said, "I'm going to pour this pot full of beans into the ash heap, and if you pick them all out within two hours, you can go to the feast." After saying this, she poured the tub of bowl beans into the ashes and ran away. Cinderella had no choice but to run out the back door into the garden and shout:
"Doves and turtledoves that skim the sky,
Fly here! Fly here!
Happy bird friends,
Fly here! Fly on over here quickly!
Come on, gang, do me a favor,
and pick out the bowl of beans in the ash!"
First flew the two white pigeons that had come in through the kitchen window, followed by the two turtledoves, and then all the little birds in the sky twittered and flapped their wings and flew to the ash pile. The little white doves lowered their heads and began to pick their way through the pile, one by one, without stopping! The other birds also began to pick, one by one, and on and on! They picked all the good beans out of the ash and put them on a plate and finished them in only an hour. She thanked them and the birds flew away from the window. With excitement, she took the plate to her stepmother, thinking she could go to the dance feast. But instead she said, "No, no! You scruffy girl, you don't have a gown, you can't dance, you can't go." Cinderella begged her again bitterly to let her go. The stepmother said this time, "If you can pick two such plates of bowls of beans out of the ash heap in an hour, you can go." Full of the thought that she could get rid of Cinderella this time, she finished pouring the two dishes of bowl beans into the ash heap, and stirred them for a while, and then went away in triumph. But the little girl ran out into the garden behind the house again and cried out just as she had done before:
"Doves and turtledoves that skim the skies,
Fly here! Fly here!
Happy friends of the birds and finches,
Fly here! Fly on over here quickly!
Come on, gang, do me a favor,
and pick out the bowl of beans in the ash!"
First flew the two white pigeons that had come in through the kitchen window, followed by the two turtledoves, and then all the little birds in the sky twittered and flapped their wings and flew to the ash pile. The little white doves lowered their heads and began to pick their way through the pile, one by one, without stopping! The other birds also began to pick, one by one, and on and on! They picked all the good beans out of the ash and put them on a plate, this time in half an hour. After the birds had flown away, Cinderella went to her stepmother with her plate, thinking with great excitement that she would be able to go to the ball. But her stepmother said, "Never mind! You're not going to go to the ball for nothing. You don't have a gown, you can't dance, and you'll only embarrass us." With that said the couple set off with her own two daughters to the party.
Now all the family were gone, leaving Cinderella alone, sitting sadly under the hazel tree and weeping:
"O hazel tree! Please help me,
please shake it,
shake off a whole set of gold and silver gowns for me."
Her friend the bird flew out of the tree and brought her a gown made of gold and silver and a pair of shiny silk dancing shoes. After dressing up and putting on her gown, Cinderella arrived at the ballroom after her two sisters. She looked so elegant, pretty and beautiful in her luxurious gown. They didn't recognize her, they thought she must be a strange princess, they didn't think she was Cinderella, they thought Cinderella was still at home in the ash heap.
When the prince saw her, he quickly came to her, put out his hand and took her, and asked her to dance. He never danced with another girl again, and his hand never let go of her. Whenever someone came to ask her to dance, the prince always said, "This lady is dancing with me." They danced together until very late in the evening when she remembered that she had to go home. The prince wanted to know where this beautiful girl really lived, so he said, "Let me take you home." Cinderella agreed outwardly, but slipped away quietly when he wasn't looking, pulling her legs up and running toward home. With the prince in hot pursuit, she had to jump into the dovecote and slam the door behind her. The prince waited outside and refused to leave until her father came home, when he went up to him and told him that the girl whose name he had met at the ball was hiding in the dovecote. When they broke down the door of the dovecote, it was empty, and he had to go back to the palace disappointed. When the parents entered the house, Cinderella was already lying on the edge of the ash heap in her scruffy clothes, as if she had been lying there all along, and the dim little oil lamp rattled in the hole in the wall above the chimney-post. In fact, Cinderella had just quickly crossed the dovecote to the hazel tree to take off her pretty gowns, put them back on the tree, and let the birds carry them away, while she herself went back into the house and sat down on the ash heap and put on her gray coat.
The next day, when the ball was about to begin again, her father, her stepmother, and her two sisters went. Cinderella came to the tree and said:
"O Hazel! Please help me,
please shake it,
shake off a whole set of gold and silver gowns for me."
The little bird came, and it brought with it a more beautiful gown than the one she had worn the day before. When she came to the ballroom, her beauty amazed all the people. The prince, who had been waiting for her arrival, immediately came forward and took her hand and asked her to dance. Whenever anyone wanted to ask her to dance, he always said, as he had the day before, "This lady is dancing with me." When it came time for her to go home in the middle of the night, the prince followed her just as he had done the day before, thinking that he would be able to see which house she went into. But she shook him off, and at once jumped into the garden behind her father's house. In the garden there was a very pretty big pear tree full of ripe pears. Cinderella did not know where she should hide, so she climbed up the tree. The prince did not see her, and he wondered where she had gone, so he had to wait again until her father came back, and then he came up to him and said, "The girl whose name I do not know who danced with me has slipped away, and I think she must have jumped up into the pear tree." The father thought darkly, "Could it be Cinderella?" So he asked someone to go and bring an axe and chopped the tree down to see that there was no one in the tree at all. When the father and stepmother went to the kitchen to see, Cinderella was lying in the ashes as usual. It turned out that after she had jumped up into the pear tree, she had slipped down the other side of the tree, taken off her pretty gown and let the bird in the hazel tree take it back, and then put on her own little gray coat.
On the third day, when her father, her stepmother and her two sisters had gone away, she came into the garden again and said:
"O Hazel Tree! Please help me,
please shake it,
shake off a whole set of gold and silver gowns for me."
Her kind friend brought another set of gowns even more beautiful than the one the next day and a pair of dancing shoes made of pure gold. When she arrived at the ball, everyone was stunned by her beauty that could not be expressed in words. The prince danced with her alone, and whenever anyone else asked her to dance, he always said, "This lady is my partner." When midnight was approaching and she was going home, the prince had to send her back again, and said secretly, "I can't let her get away this time." Nevertheless, Cinderella managed to slip away from him. In her haste to get away, she managed to lose her left golden dancing shoe on the stairs.
The prince picked up the shoe, and the next day he came to his king's father and said, "I will take as my wife the girl who happens to be able to wear this golden shoe." Cinderella's two sisters were very happy to hear this news, for they both had very pretty feet, and they thought there was no doubt that they would wear that dancing shoe. The elder sister, accompanied by her mother, went first to the house to try on the dancing shoe, but her big toe would not fit into it; it was too small for her. So her mother brought her a knife and said, "That's all right, cut off your big toe! As long as you're queen, what do you care about the toe, you won't even need to use your feet to get where you want to go." The eldest daughter heard, think it makes sense, this silly girl endured the pain cut off their big toe, reluctantly put on the foot to the prince face. When the prince saw that she had put on her shoes, he took her for a bride, rode side by side with her on a horse, and took her away.
But on their way out to return to the palace, passing the hazel tree in the back garden where Cinderella had planted it, a little dove perched on a branch sang:
"Go back again! Go back again!
Look at the shoe!
The shoe is too small to be made for her!
Prince! Prince!
Find your bride again,
It is not your bride who sits beside you!"
When the prince heard this, he dismounted from his horse and stared at her feet, and found that blood was pouring out of the shoe, and he knew that he had been deceived, and at once he turned his horse around, and took the false bride back to her house and said, "This is not the true bride; let the other sister try on the shoe." So the sister tried the shoe on her foot, and the front of her foot went in, but the heel was too big, and she just couldn't get it on. Her mother told her to cut off the heel and put it on, and then dragged her to the prince. When the prince saw that she had put on her shoes, he helped her on to his horse as a bride, and sitting side by side they departed together.
But as they passed the hazel tree, the little dove was still perched on the head of the branch, and it sang:
"Go back again! Go back again!
Look at the shoe!
The shoe is too small to be made for her!
The prince! Prince!
Find your bride again,
It is not your bride who sits beside you!"
The prince looked down and saw that blood was running out of her dancing shoes, and even her white stockings were drenched red; and he turned his horse, and sent her back likewise, and said to her father, "This is not the true bride, and have you any daughters? "The father replied, "No more; only a little scruffy daughter called Cinderella by my former wife, who could not be a bride." However, the prince made sure he brought her to try. Cinderella first washed her face and hands, then walked in and curtsied to the prince in a very cultured manner. The prince brought her the dancing shoes to wear, and they went on her feet as if they had been made especially for her. He stepped forward to get a closer look at her face and recognized her and immediately said excitedly, "This is my real bride." The stepmother and her two sisters were astonished, and when the prince helped Cinderella onto the horse, they were so angry that their faces turned white and they watched as the prince took her away. As they came to the hazel tree, the little white dove sang:
"Go home! Go home!
Look at the shoe!
The Princess! It's a shoe made for you!
Prince! Prince!
Take the bride home now,
The one who sits beside you is the real bride"
After the dove had finished singing, it flew up and came to rest on Cinderella's right shoulder. Together they walked towards the palace