“And pray, Cinderella, would you like to go to the ball?”
“Nay,” said the poor girl; “you are mocking me. It is not for such as I
to go to balls.”
“True enough,” they said. “Folks would laugh to see a cinder-maid at a
court ball.”
Any one else would have dressed their hair ill to spite them for their
rudeness. But Cinderella was good-natured, and only took more pains to
make them look well.
The two sisters scarcely ate a morsel for two days before the ball. They
wished to look thin and graceful. They lost their tempers over and over,
and they spent most of the time before their tall glasses. There they
turned and turned to see how they looked behind, and how their long
trains hung.
At last the evening came, and off they set in a coach. Cinderella
watched them till they were out of sight, and then she sat down by the
kitchen fire and began to weep.
All at once her fairy godmother appeared, with her wand.
“What are you crying for, my little maid?”
“I wish--I wish,” began the poor girl, but her voice was choked with
tears.
“You wish that you could go to the ball?”
Cinderella nodded.
“Well, then, if you will be a good girl, you shall go. Run quick and
fetch me a pumpkin from the garden.”
Cinderella flew to the garden and brought back the finest pumpkin she
could find. She could not guess what use it would be, but the fairy
scooped it hollow, and then touched it with her wand. The pumpkin became
at once a splendid gilt coach.
“Now fetch me the mouse-trap from the pantry.”
In the mouse-trap were six sleek mice. The fairy opened the door, and as
they ran out she touched each with her wand, and it became a gray horse.
But what was she to do for a coachman?
“We might look for a rat in the rat-trap,” said Cinderella.
“That is a good thought. Run and bring the rat-trap, my dear.”
Back came Cinderella with the trap. In it were three large rats. The
fairy chose one that had long black whiskers, and she made him the
coachman.
“Now go into the garden and bring me six lizards. You will find them
behind the water-pot.”
These were no sooner brought than, lo! with a touch of the wand they
were turned into six footmen, who jumped up behind the coach, as if they
had done nothing else all their days. Then the fairy said:--
“Here is your coach and six, Cinderella; your coachman and your footmen.
Now you can go to the ball.”
“What! in these clothes?” and Cinderella looked down at her ragged
frock. The fairy laughed, and just touched her with the wand. In a
twinkling, her shabby clothes were changed to a dress of gold and silver
lace, and on her bare feet were silk stockings and a pair of glass
slippers, the prettiest ever seen.
[Illustration: 0079]
“Now go to the ball, Cinderella; but remember, if you stay one moment
after midnight, your coach will instantly become a pumpkin, your horses
will be mice, your coachman a rat, and your footmen lizards. And you?
You will be once more only a cinder-maid in a ragged frock and with bare
feet.”