第199页 / 共626页

Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters; one of

them was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. The

mother, however, loved the ugly and lazy one best, because she

was her own daughter, and so the other, who was only her

stepdaughter, was made to do all the work of the house, and was

quite the Cinderella of the family. Her stepmother sent her out

every day to sit by the well in the high road, there to spin

until she made her fingers bleed. Now it chanced one day that

some blood fell on to the spindle, and as the girl stopped over

the well to wash it off, the spindle suddenly sprang out of her

hand and fell into the well. She ran home crying to tell of her

misfortune, but her stepmother spoke harshly to her, and after

giving her a violent scolding, said unkindly, 'As you have let

the spindle fall into the well you may go yourself and fetch it

out.'