Cinderella

“ Then, sure that she was quite alone, Cinderella stole to the mirror.
For a long time she gazed at the girl in the glass; a straight, slim girl in a delicate little gown that somehow brought out fully, for the first time, the charming delicacy of her face—not the delicacy of small features, of frail health, nor of a timid temper, but of an exceeding and subtle fineness, partly of the flesh, partly of the spirit, like the fineness of rare and gossamer fabrics. ”

“ Cinderella promised to obey, and then she stepped into the coach and rolled away to the ball. [334]
When she reached the palace the music was sounding and the Prince was about to choose a partner for the dance. All the ladies waited anxiously, each hoping she would be the one to be chosen. Many beauties were there, and it was hard to say which was the loveliest. But when Cinderella entered the room no one had eyes for anyone but her. She was far fairer than the fairest, as the crescent moon is lovelier than the stars. ”

“ She felt like a real girl now, and the childish joy and excitement that flushed her cheek and shone in her eyes gave a rare beauty to her face, such as it had perhaps never worn before, so that passers looked with admiration and wonder at the fairy-like girl who, so shabbily and quaintly dressed, yet so graceful and so pretty, tripped lightly by them, the very model for a Cinderella. ”

“ So her two sisters gave her the name of Cinderella or the cinder-maid. But Cinderella was really much more beautiful than they; and she surely was more sweet and gentle.
Now the king’s son gave a ball, and he invited all the rich and the grand. Cinderella’s two sisters were fine ladies; they were to go to the ball. Perhaps they would even dance with the prince. So they had new gowns made, and they looked over all their finery.
Here was fresh work for poor Cinderella. She must starch their ruffles and iron their linen. All day long they talked of nothing but their fine clothes. ”

“ With the last stroke of twelve, coach and footmen had whisked away, and poor Cinderella, barefoot now as well as in rags, panted homeward over roads where the flints cut her until she bled, and the owls and great moths blundered out of the bushes against her face. ”

“ Cinderella got home tired and out of breath, in her old clothes, without either coach or footmen, and having nothing left of her magnificence but the fellow of the glass slipper which she had dropped. In the mean while, the prince had inquired of all his guards at the palace gates, if they had not seen a magnificent princess pass out, and which way she went? The guards replied, that no princess had passed the gates; and that they had not seen a creature but a little ragged girl, who looked more like a beggar than a princess. ”

“ Cinderella. Not now; but sometime I may tell you about my fairy godmother.
Prince. There! I knew you must be a sister of the fairies. Does your fairy godmother have a fairy wand?
Cinderella. Yes, and she does wonderful things with it—but my father and mother do not know about her.
Prince. Of course not. Only very young people know about fairy godmothers. But we know, don't we?
Cinderella. Hark! I hear the chimes ringing. It must be twelve o'clock, and I must go.
Prince. Do not go, dear princess. Stay here in my palace, always.
Cinderella. The fairies are calling me and I am late. I must go. ”

“ Indeed he missed his lovely princess altogether, and only saw running out of the palace doors a little dirty lass whom he had never beheld before, and of whom he certainly would never have taken the least notice, Cinderella arrived at home breathless and weary, ragged and cold, without carriage, or footmen, or coachman ”

“ Selfishness and pride are set forth in the half-sisters in all their unattractiveness; while Cinderella’s final triumph serves as a means of showing her gentle and forgiving nature. These are the points to be brought out in the story-telling, and it would seem to me to be an unjustifiable robbery to take the story of Cinderella from the child’s early store of fairy tales. What a thrill of exquisite delight is felt by the child when the magic of the god-mother’s [59] wand turns Cinderella’s rags into the robe of a princess and she is whirled away in her golden chariot to meet the prince. ”

“ The next evening the two sisters were at the ball; and so was Cinderella, but in even finer attire than before. Her godmother had spared no pains, and as for the expense, that hardly needs to be considered when you can turn pumpkins into gilt coaches, cobwebs into Valenciennes lace, and beetles' wings into rubies, with the tap of a wand. ”

“ This Godmother of hers, who was a fairy, said to her: “Thou wishest thou could’st go to the ball. Is it not so?”
“Y—es,” cried Cinderella, with a great sigh.
“Well,” said her Godmother, “be but a good girl, and I will contrive that thou shalt go.” Then she took her into her chamber and said to her: “Run into the garden and bring me a pumpkin.” ”

“ Life’s a kind of hard.
GODMOTHER. It will always be hard to you, Cinderella. I can’t promise you anything else.
CINDERELLA. I don’t suppose I could have my three wishes, Godmother.
GODMOTHER. I am not very powerful in these days, Cinderella; but what are your wishes?
CINDERELLA. I would like fine to have my ball, Godmother.
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GODMOTHER. You shall have your ball.
CINDERELLA. I would like to nurse the wounded.
GODMOTHER. You shall nurse the wounded.
CINDERELLA. I would like to be loved by the man of my choice, Godmother.
GODMOTHER. You shall be loved by the man of your choice. ”

“ Poor Cinderella drew from under her bedraggled bodice a crystal slipper, fellow to the missing one. It was the one remnant of all her finery, and somehow, scarcely knowing why, she had hugged it to her while she ran and never let it slip in all her stumblings. ”

“ Why should you, you queer little waif. Do you know why I call you Cinderella?
CINDERELLA. Fine, I know.
BODIE. Why is it?
CINDERELLA (with shy happiness) . It’s because I have such pretty feet.
BODIE. You dear little innocent. (He thinks shame of his suspicions. He is planning how to get rid of the man in the pantry when she brings him back to hard facts with a bump.) ”

“ If you are not, all your beautiful things will vanish and you will be left alone just a poor little, ragged cinder-maid."
Cinderella promised to remember. She thanked the fairy and drove quickly away. At last she reached the big house where the Prince was giving the party. There was music and dancing in the great hall, but when Cinderella walked in, everybody stopped dancing and looked at her. They said, "What a pretty girl! Who is she? Where did she come from? She must be a princess to wear such wonderful clothes! She has on such a fine dress, she must surely be a princess!" ”

“ She next said to Cinderella, “Go again into the garden, and you will find six lizards behind the watering-pot; bring them hither.” This was no sooner done, than, with a stroke from the fairy’s wand, they were changed into six footmen, who all imme ately jumped up behind the coach in laced liveries, and stood side by side as cleverly as if they had been used to nothing else the whole of their lives.
The fairy then said to Cinderella, “Well, my dear, is not this such an equipage as you could wish for to take you to the ball? Are you not delighted with it ?” ”

“ While Cinderella was busily engaged in dressing her sisters, they said to her, "Should you not like, Cinderella, to go to the ball?" "Ah!" replied Cinderella, "you are only laughing at mo; it is not for such as I am to think of going to balls." "You are in the right," said thoy: "folks might laugh indeed to see Cinderbreech dancing in a ball-room." ”

“ She next looked into her mousetrap, where she found six mice all alive and brisk: she told Cinderella to lift up the door of the trap very gently; and as the mice passed out, she touched them one by one with her wand, and each immediately became a beautiful horse of a fine dapple grey mouse-colour. “Here, my child,” said the godmother, “is a coach and horse too, as handsome as your sisters’: but what shall we do for a postilion?”
“I will run,” replied Cinderella, “and see if there be not a rat in the rat-trap; if I find one, he will do very well for a postilion.” ”

“ However, the Prince's search was rewarded by his finding the glass slipper, which he well knew belonged to the unknown Princess. He loved Cinderella so much that he now resolved to marry her; and as he felt sure that no one else could wear such a tiny shoe as hers was, he sent out a herald to proclaim that whichever lady in his kingdom could put on this glass slipper should be his wife.
All the great ladies who wished to be a Princess tried to put it on, but in vain. Cinderella's sisters tried, but could not get it on, and then Cinderella asked if she might try. They laughed at her ”

“ But come! Unfasten our dresses. To-morrow there is to be another ball, and we must get to bed and rest, so as to look our best.”
So Cinderella helped her sisters to undress, and all the while she did so they could talk of nothing but the unknown princess, of how beautiful she was, and of how much the Prince had admired her.
The next night Cinderella helped to dress her sisters and make them ready for the ball. They rolled away in their coach, and then Cinderella waited impatiently for her godmother to come. It was not long before the old fairy appeared. ”

“ And, my dear, don’t be always Doctor Bodieing me. That, of course, at the Home, and on duty, but here in my house you are my guest. I am Miss Bodie to you here. Don’t let me forget that I am a woman. I assure you I value that privilege. (She lingers over Cinderella’s [120] pillow.) Dear, you must invite Nurse and Danny to tea with you, and all be happy together. Little Cinderella, if I will do as a substitute, you haven’t altogether lost your Godmother. ”

“ Cinderella is a good type of the old romantic tale. It has a never-ending attraction for children just as it has had for all peoples of the world; for this tale has as many as three hundred and forty-five variants, which have been examined by Miss Cox. In these variants there are many common incidents, such as the hearth abode, the helpful animal, the heroine disguise, the ill-treated heroine, the lost shoe, the love-sick prince, magic dresses, the magic tree, the threefold flight, the false bride, and many others. ”

“ RUSSIAN FOLK-TALES. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.
There are but few among those inhabitants of Fairy-land of whom “Popular Tales” tell, who are better known to the outer world than Cinderella—the despised and flouted younger sister, who long sits unnoticed beside the hearth, then furtively visits the glittering halls of the great and gay, and at last is transferred from her obscure nook to the place of honor justly due to her tardily acknowledged merits. Somewhat like the fortunes of Cinderella have been those of the popular tale itself. ”

“ Thus Cinderella, or she who has a dress of the colour of ashes, or of a grey or dark colour, like the sky of night (in Russian stories Cinderella is called Cernushka, which means little black one, as well as little dirty one) , appears exceedingly beautiful only when she finds herself in the prince's ball-room, or in church, in candlelight, and near the prince: the aurora is beautiful only when the sun is near. ”

“ Her sisters burst out a laughing in the rudest manner possible:---“Very likely, truly,” said one of them, “that such a clumsy foot as your’s should fit the slipper of a beautiful princess.”
The gentleman, however, who brought the slipper, turned round, looked at Cinderella, and observing that she was very handsome, said, that as he was ordered by the prince to try it on every one till it fitted, it was but just that Cinderella should have her turn. ”

“ We want everything. All the happiness that earth and heaven are capable of bestowing. Creature comforts, and heart and soul comforts also; and, proud-spirited beings that we are, we will not be put off with a part. Give us only everything, and we will be content. And, after all, Cinderella, you have had your day. Some little dogs never get theirs. You must not be greedy. You have known happiness. The palace was Paradise for those few months, and the Prince’s arms were about you, Cinderella, the Prince’s kisses on your lips; the gods themselves cannot take that from you. ”

“ Cinderella, for instance, pales before the history of the two Irish girls who, more than 150 years ago, crossed the fish-pond which divides the sister countries, and came to seek their fortunes, with only their lovely faces pour tout potage. The surpassing beauty of the sisters has become matter of history, nor, perhaps, is there a parallel instance of mere beauty exciting so extraordinary a sensation as that produced by these portionless girls. ”

“ The gentle and interesting Cinderella dwindles down into a girl, whose only apparent merit was her economy in having her shoe patched—and the affable and affluent prince melts away into a French actor. Were the prize of squeezing her foot into the little slipper only to become the bride of an actor, I should imagine the ladies would not have been quite so anxious to stand in her shoes! ”

“ Lo! the coach turned into a pumpkin.
The horses and men turned into mice.
Poor Cinderella had to walk home in her ragged clothes.
The next morning the prince found Cinderella's little glass slipper on the stairs.
"There is only one maiden in all the world who can wear so tiny a slipper," said the prince. "I will marry her and no other." ”