Cinderella
adapted from a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault
Once upon a time, there was a gentleman who married for his second
wife the proudest and most disagreeable woman that was ever seen. She
had two daughters who were exactly like her in all ways. He himself
had a young daughter, but she was very sweet and good.No sooner was the wedding over but the stepmother began to show how
mean she really was. She could not bear the good qualities of this
pretty girl, who was so unlike her own daughters. So she gave her the
hardest and dirtiest work: washing the dishes and tables, dusting the
rooms, and cleaning the fireplace. And she had to sleep in a tiny
attic room, on an old wretchedstraw bed.
The poor girl suffered in silence, not daring to tell her
father, for he was ruled by his new wife. When she had
done her work, she used to go into the chimney corner and sit down among
cinders and ashes. Because of this, her stepsisters gave her the
nickname “Cinderella.” However, in spite of her shabby clothes,
Cinderella was a hundred times more beautiful than her stepsisters,
though they always dressed very richly.
It happened that the king’s son gave a ball to which all the important
people, including the two sisters, were invited. They were delighted,
and busied themselves deciding what to wear. This was a new trouble to
Cinderella, for it was she who ironed her sisters’ linen and plaited
their ruffles, while they talked all day long of nothing but their
clothes.
“For my part,” said the elder, “I will wear my red-velvet suit with
trimmings of French lace.”
“And I,” said the younger, “shall have my usual petticoat. But I will
put on my gold-flowered gown and my diamond necklace which is far finer
than anything you have.”
Cinderella was often called upon for advice, and on the evening of the
ball offered to dress them herself and to do their hair. As she was
doing this, the elder one said to her, “Cinderella, don’t you wish you
were going to the ball?”
“Alas,” she said, “you are only making fun of me. It is not for such as
I to go to the ball.”
“You are right,” said the younger one. “It would certainly make people
laugh to see a cinderwench at a palace ball.”
After this, anyone but Cinderella would have dressed them awry, but she
was very good and did the job perfectly.
When they left for the palace, Cinderella followed the coach with her
eyes as long as she could. After it had disappeared, she sat down by the
kitchen fire and began to cry.
Instantly, her fairy godmother appeared beside her and asked, “Why all
the tears, my child?”
“I wish I could—I wish I could—” She was not able to speak because
of her tears and sobbing.
“You wish to go to the ball. Is it not so?”
“Yes,” cried Cinderella, with a great sigh.
“Well,” said her fairy godmother, “be a good girl, and I shall arrange
for you to go.” Then she said to her, “Run into the garden and bring me
a pumpkin.”
Cinderella went immediately to gather the finest pumpkin and brought it
to her fairy godmother. But try as she might, she could not imagine how
this pumpkin could help her get to the ball. Her fairy godmother took
the pumpkin and scooped out all the inside. This done, she struck it
with her wand, and the pumpkin was instantly turned into a fine coach,
gilded all over with gold.
“Now bring me the mousetrap, child.”
Cinderella immediately brought the trap, which contained six mice, all
alive. She told Cinderella to lift up the little trap door. As each
mouse went out, she gave it a little tap with her wand and changed it
into a beautiful white horse.
Being at a loss for a coachman, Cinderella said, “I will go and see if
there is a rat in the rat-trap—we may make a coachman of him.”
“You are right,” replied her fairy godmother. “Go and look.”
Cinderella brought the trap to her, and in it there was a huge rat. The
instant the fairy godmother touched him with her wand, he was turned
into a fat, jolly coachman, who had the smartest whiskers eyes ever
beheld. After that, she said to Cinderella, “Go again into the garden,
and you will find six lizards behind the watering pot. Bring them to
me.”
Cinderella had no sooner done so than her fairy
godmother turned them into six footmen. They jumped up behind the coach
as if they had done nothing else in their life. The fairy godmother then
said to Cinderella, “Well, you see here everything you need to take you
to the ball. Are you not pleased with it?”
“Oh, yes,” cried Cinderella, “but must I go in these old rags?”
Her fairy godmother laughed and just touched her with her wand. In that
instant, her old rags were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all
sparkling with jewels. And on her feet she had a pair of glass slippers,
the prettiest in the whole world.
As Cinderella climbed into the coach, her fairy godmother said to her,
“Enjoy yourself at the ball, but remember, you must be home by midnight.
If you stay one moment longer, the coach will become a pumpkin again.
Your horses mice, your coachman a rat, your footmen lizards, and your
clothes will turn to rags, just as they were before.”
Cinderella promised she would leave the ball before midnight. And then
away she drove, scarce able to contain herself for joy.
The king’s son, who was told that a great princess, whom nobody knew,
had come, ran out to meet her. He gave her his hand as she stepped down
from the coach and led her into the hall. There was immediate silence.
The people stopped dancing, and the violins ceased to play. Everyone
whispered, “How beautiful she is!”
The king himself could not help watching her and telling the queen
softly that it was a long time since he had seen so beautiful and lovely
a creature. All the ladies studied her clothes carefully, planning to
have some made the next day that would be just like them.
The king’s son took her to a seat of honor, and then led her out to
dance. She danced so gracefully that everyone admired her more and more.
Later, at supper, the young prince ate nothing, he was so busy watching
Cinderella.
As for Cinderella, she sat down by her sisters and showed them every
courtesy. This surprised them very much, for they did not recognize her.
Time passed very quickly, and Cinderella quite forgot what her godmother
had commanded her.
Suddenly she heard a clock begin to strike, and realized that in a
moment it would be midnight. She
then rose up and fled, as nimble as a deer. The prince followed but
could not overtake her. She left behind one of her glass slippers which
the prince took up most carefully. Cinderella reached home, quite out of
breath, and in her old clothes, having nothing left of all her finery
but one of the little slippers, the mate to the one she had dropped.
The prince asked the guards at the palace gate if they had seen a
princess go out. They had seen nobody but a young girl, very poorly
dressed.
When the two sisters returned from the ball, they were full of all that
had happened. They told of this beautiful girl who had appeared, and
then fled as the clock began to strike midnight. And, of course, they
spoke of the glass slipper she had dropped in her haste. They said that
the king’s son had picked it up. He had done nothing but look at it the
rest of the evening. Most certainly he was in love with the beautiful
girl who owned the glass slipper.
What they said was very true. A few days afterward, the king’s son
caused it to be proclaimed, with sounds of trumpets, that he would marry
the girl whose foot this slipper fit.
The next day, one of the heralds from the court began going from house
to house with the glass slipper. One fine woman after another tried it
on, but to no avail. It was a fairy slipper and no one could get a foot
into it.
Finally, the slipper was brought to the two stepsisters. Each did all
she possibly could to get her foot into the slipper. But they could not.
Cinderella, who saw all this, and knew her slipper, said to them,
laughing:
“Let me see if it will fit me.”
Her stepsisters burst out laughing. But the gentleman who was sent to
try the slipper said it was only right she should try. He had orders to
let everyone try on the slipper.
He asked Cinderella to sit down. Putting the slipper to her foot, he
found it went on easily and fitted her as if it had been made of wax.
The two stepsisters were astonished. But they were even more astonished
when Cinderella pulled out of her pocket the other slipper and put it on
her foot. At that moment, in came her fairy godmother who touched
Cinderella’s clothes with her wand and made them richer and more
magnificent than any she had worn before.
And now her two stepsisters knew her to be that fine, beautiful lady
they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet and begged
her pardon for all they had said and done to her. Cinderella raised them
up and embraced them, saying that she forgave them with all her heart
and wished them to love her always.
Cinderella was taken immediately to the young prince. He thought her
more charming than ever and, a few days after, married her. Cinderella,
who was no less good than beautiful, gave her two stepsisters a place to
live in the palace and before long saw them married to great lords of
the court.
