CINDERELLA, OR THE L I T T L E GLASS SLIPPER
,From the French of Charles Perrault, author of the
first book of Mother Goose Tales’
I
Once o n a time there was a man of,rank who married
, a second wife. She was a proud woman, the proudest
ever seen, and she had two proud daughters of her own
kind, who were like her in all things. On his side, her
husband had a daughter, who was very sweet and good.
She was like her dead mother, who was the best person
in the world.
No sooner was the wedding over than the proud woman
began to show her bad nature. She could not bear the
goodness of her step-child because it made her own
,daughters seem more hateful. She made the little girl
do the hardest work in the house. After washing the
dishes, she had to scrub the steps of the stairs, and the
rooms of Madam and the young ladies, her daughters.
She slept on a straw bed in a poor room at the top of the
house, while her sisters had fine rooms, with inlaid floors,
splendid beds, and mirrors so tall that they could see
themselves from head to foot.
T h e poor child bore everything with patience. She did
not complain to her father whose new wife had control
of his mind in all things. When her work was done, she
sat in the kitchen, among the ashes and cinders of the
-fireplace, to keep warm, and her sisters called her the
Cinder-wench. T h e younger, who was not so cross as
the older one, changed this name to Cinderella. I n her
shabby clothes, Cinderella was still a hundred times fairer
to see than either of her sisters in their finest dresses.
I t happened that the son of the king gave a ball and
invited all the grand people. Our two young ladies were
72
CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER 73
also invited because they made a great figure in the coun-
try. Behold them well content and very busy in choosing
the dresses and styles for the hair which would become
them most. This made more trouble for Cinderella, for
it was she who ironed her sisters’ linen and fluted their
ruffles. They talked of nothing but the way they would
dress :
“I will wear my dress of red velvet and trimmings in
English style,” said the elder.
\
.“I will wear my plain skirt,” said the younger; “but to
make up for that, I will put on my mantle with flowers
of gold, and my diamond bar which is well worth
looking at.”
They sent out t o find the best hair-dressers and to buy
beauty-patches for their faces from the best makers. They
called in Cinderella to ask her advice because she had good
taste. Cinderella gave them the best advice in the world
and even offered to dress their hair, which they were
anxious to have her do.
While she was combing their hair, they said to her:
“Cinderella, would you not be glad to go to the ball?”
“Alas, ladibs, you are laughing at me! T h a t is no place
for me,” she said.
“You are right,” they said. “They would laugh to see
a Cinder-wench going to a ball.”
Anyone but Cinderella would have dressed their hair
in the wrong way after this, but she was good and dressed
their heads in perfect order. They went nearly two days
without eating, so nearly were they beside themselves
with joy. They broke more’than a dozen laces in trying
to lace themselves into a graceful figure, and they were
. always before the looking-glass.
A t last came the happy day. They set out and Cin-
derella followed them with her eyes as long as she could.
When she could see them no longer, she began to cry.
Her Godmother, who saw her all in tears, asked what
ailed her. “I wish, 0, I wish,-” she said, and cried so
-
74 CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER
much that she could not go on. H e r Godmother, who was
a fairy, said to her: “You wish very much t o go to the
ball, do you not?”
“Alas, yes,” said Cinderella, sighing. “Very well then,”
said her Godmother. “Be a good girl and I will‘send
you.” She took her hand, and said to her: “Go into the
garden and bring me a pumpkin.” Cinderella hurried t o
select the best one she could find, without being able to
guess how this pumpkin could help her in going to the
ball. H e r Godmother scooped it out and, having left
the rind, struck it with her wand, and the pumpkin was
changed into a beautiful carriage, gilded all over. Then
she went to look at the mouse-trap, where she found six
mice, all alive. She told Cinderella to raise the door of
the trap. As each mouse came out, she touched it with
her wand and the mouse was changed at once into a
beautiful horse. This made a fine team of six horses, of
a beautiful dappled, mouse-gray.
She was in doubt about what to do for a coachman. “I
will go to see if there is not a rat in the rat-trap,” said
Cinderella. “We will make him into a coachman.” Cin-
derella brought back the rat-trap and it had three great
rats in it. T h e fairy selected one of them with fine
whiskers. Having touched him, he was changed into a
large coachman who had one of the finest mustaches that
ever was seen. Then she said to Cinderella: “Go into
the garden and you will find six lizards behind the water-
,
CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER 75
ing-pot. Bring them to me.” She had no sooner brought
them than her Godmother changed them into six footmen,
who mounted the carriage in their silver-laced livery and
held on as if they had never done anything else in their
lives.
The fairy then said to Cinderella: “See, there is every-
thing needed for going to the ball. Are you not very
glad?” “Yes, but how can I go in these old clothes?”
asked Cinderella. Her Godmother had but to touch them
with her wand and a t once they were changed into a dress
of gold and silver cloth, laced with jewels. Then she gave
her a pair of glass slippers, the most beautiful in the
world.
Dressed in this way, she got into the coach, but her
Godmother advised her that above all things, she should
not stay after midnight. She told her that if she stayed
a t the ball a moment too late, her carriage would once
more be a pumpkin, her horses mice, and her footmen
lizards and that her old clothes would change back into
their first form. She promised her Godmother that she
would not fail to leave the ball before midnight. She set
out, hardly knowing herself for joy.
The King’s son, when they went to tell him that a great
princess whom no one knew, was arriving, ran to receive
her. H e gave her his hand to get out of the carriage, and
led her into the hall where the company was. Then there
.
*
was a great silence. They stopped dancing. T h e violins
no longer played. Such was their desire to gaze a t the
great‘ beauty of this Fair Unknown that you could hear
only a confused noise: “Ha, how beautiful she is!” The
King himself, old as he was, could not help gazing a t her
and saying to the Queen that it was a long time since he
had seen such a fair and lovely person. All the ladies
looked closely a t the way her hair was dressed and a t her
clothing, to have dresses of the same kind made next day
for themselves, if they could find goods fine enough and
workers skilful enough to make them.
I
76 CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER
T h e K i n g ’ s son gave her the place of honor and took
her out to lead the dance. She danced with so much grace
‘
that they admired her more than ever. They brought in
a very fine supper which the Prince could not eat because
he was so much taken up with looking a t her. She went
to sit near her sisters and showed them a thousand little
acts of kindness, giving them part of the oranges and
citrons the Prince had given her. W h a t surprised her
much was that they did not know her.
While they were talking, Cinderella heard the clock
strike three-quarters after eleven. At once, she made a
low bow to all the company and went away as quickly as
she could.
When she reached home, she went to find her God-
mother, and after having thanked her, told her than she
wished very much to go to the ball next day because the
King’s son had invited her.
While she was telling her Godmother everything that
took place a t the ball, her two sisters knocked a t the gate.
Cinderella went to open it. “You are a long time coming,”
she said to them.
“If you had been a t the ball, you would not have
found it long,” said one of her sisters. “A most beauti-
ful princess came,-the most beautiful ever seen ; she
showed us a thousand civilities. She gave us oranges and
8 citrons.”
Hardly knowing herself for joy, Cinderella asked. the
name of the Princess, but they answered that no one -
knew,-that the King’s son would give everything in the
world to know who she wqs.
Cinderella smiled and said to them: “Was she then
very beautiful? How fortunate you are. Could I not see
her? Alas, Miss Javotte, lend me your yellow dress that
you wear every day.” “Yes, indeed,” said Miss Javotte, “I
a m very likely to lend my dress to a common Cinder-
wench. I would be very silly to think of it.”
Cinderella listened closely to this refusal and it quieted
CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE aLASS SLIPPER 77
her mind, for she would have been troubled if her sister
had been anxious to lend her the dress.
Next day the two sisters were a t the ball, and so was
Cinderella, better dressed than the first time. The King’s
son was always near her and did not cease saying to her
the most pleasing things he could. T h e young lady did
not grow weary of it, and forgot‘ what her Godmother
had advised. When she heard the first stroke of midnight,
she thought a t first it was only eleven o’clock. Then she
rose and ran like a deer. The Prince followed, but he
could not overtake her. She let fall one of her glass
slippers, which the Prince picked up carefully.
Cinderella reached home, all out of breath, without a
carriage, without footmen, and in her old clothes. Nothing
was left of all her finery, but a little glass slipper, the
mate of the one she had let fall. When they asked the,
guards a t the Palace if they had seen a Princess going
out, they said they had seen no one but a badly-dressed
78 CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER
girl, who seemed to have more of the style of a peasant
than of a young lady.
When her two sisters returned from the ball, Cinderella
asked them if they had been well-treated, and if the beau-
tiful Princess had been there. They said yes, but’ that
when it struck midnight, she had fled so promptly that
she had let fall one of her little glass slippers, the prettiest
in the world, and that the Prince had done nothing but
look at it during the rest of the ball. They said he was
certainly in love with the beautiful person to whom the
little glass slipper belonged.
They spoke truly because a few days later, the King’s
son had it proclaimed with the sound of a trumpet that
he would marry the person whose foot would exactly fit
‘
the slipper. They began by trying it on the princesses,
then on the duchesses, and all the great ladies, but it was
useless. They carried it to the two sisters, who did their
best to force their feet into it, but they could not.
Cinderella, who watched them, said laughing: “Let me
see if it would be becoming to me!” The sisters began t o
laugh and to mock her. T h e man, who was making the
tests, after looking carefully a t Cinderella and finding her
very fair, said it was just, and that he had orders for all
I girls to make the trial. H e made Cinderella sit down. Then,
trying the slipper on her foot, he found that it slipped on
easily and fitted like wax. The surprise of her sisters
was great, but it was greater still when Cinderella drew
from her pocket the other little slipper which she put on
her foot. Meanwhile, her Godmother arrived, who hav-
ing given a stroke of her wand t o Cinderella’s clothes,
made them more magnificent than the others had been.
Then her two sisters knew her as the beautiful person
they had seen a t the ball. They threw themselves a t her
feet to beg her pardon for the bad treatment they had
made her suffer. Cinderella raised them up and put her
arms around them. She told them that she forgave them
with all her heart and prayed them always to love her.
CINDERELLA, OR THE LITTLE GLASS SLIPPER 79
They led her to the young Prince, dressed as she was.
H e found her more beautiful than ever, and married her
a few days later. Cinderella, who was as good as she
was beautiful, took her two sisters to live in the Palace
and married them both on the same day to two great lords
of the court.
MORAL
(Adapted)
Beauty, my dears, is so admired,
And rosy cheeks are so desired,
They may result in such a marriage
As turns your pumpkin to a carriage;
But these are not the fairy’s boon.
When given by nature or by art,
They fade away and vanish soon,
While beauty of the soul and heart
Blooms fairer yet when these depart,
And though by Princes never seen,
Make Cinderella still a queen.
, .
