A rich man’s charming wife died leaving him a little daughter. When she knew she would not live for long, she had called her daughter and told her to obey her father and to be good and pious. “I’ll be looking down at you,” she promised. The little girl was very sad when her mother died and she went every day to her grave and prayed there with tears in her eyes.
In spring, the rich man married a lady who had two daughters. They came to live in his mansion. The new wife was beautiful and the two girls were very pretty, but they were not good or kind. They were cruel and wicked. And they were extremely jealous of the little girl, who was the rich man’s daughter.
They soon began to give her all kinds of work, fetching and carrying for them, washing and mending their clothes, polishing their shoes, running errands for them. One day, they took away all her lovely clothes and left her only with the rags. They told her she must sleep in the kitchen.
So, she began to sleep near the kitchen stove among the warm ashes. The step-sisters laughed seeing her look so dirty and dust, covered with ashes. So, they began to call her ‘Cinderella’.
One day, her father was going away for some work and asked the girls what he should bring for them. One of the sisters asked for beautiful dresses and the other for jewels and pearls. Cinderella asked him to bring the first thing that brushed his hat.
The man bought all that his step-daughters wanted and, as he rode back home, a hazel twig brushed his hat. So, he broke that off and brought it for Cinderella.
Cinderella planted the twig at her mother’s grave and wept. Her tears watered the twig and soon a lovely hazel tree stood there. A white dove came to the tree and whenever she wished for something, the dove would give it to her.
One day, they heard that the King was holding a celebration at the palace for three days. Everyone was invited so that the Prince might choose a bride from among the maidens who came.
The step-sisters were delighted and were certain that he would select one of them. So, they ordered Cinderella to lay out their best clothes and polish their shoes. Cinderella asked wistfully whether she too could go to the celebration, but they laughed.
“Just look at you! Dirty and dusty! Covered with ashes!” they mocked.
Her step-mother told her that she had scattered a bowl of peas among the ashes. “If you can pick them up in two hours, you may come with us,” she said.
Cinderella prayed and called to all the birds to help. With a flutter many birds came down. They picked up all the peas and put them in a bowl. The step-mother was irritated that Cinderella finished her task in an hour. So, she told her she couldn’t come as she was too dirty and had no clothes fit for the dance. Instead, she flung two more bowls of peas into the ashes and told her to pick them.
Her step-mother and sisters went off to the dance, dressed in beautiful clothes. Cinderella ran to her mother’s grave and wept under the hazel tree. She called out, “Shake and quiver, little tree, Gold and silver over me!”
And the white dove on the tree threw a beautiful shimmering dress over her with silken slippers to match. Off went Cinderella to the dance!
The Prince was fascinated seeing the lovely girl in the shimmering dress and danced only with her. The step-sisters watched enviously, but did not recognize Cinderella. They had left her to pick peas from the ashes!
As evening fell, Cinderella wished to leave, so the Prince escorted her back. But she escaped through the pigeon coop to her mother’s grave where her old ragged dress waited for her. She flung off the shimmering dress and the white dove took it away.
The Prince, looking for her near the pigeon coop, was seen by Cinderella’s father. But they couldn’t see her anywhere. Her father wondered if it was Cinderella, but when he and the others looked, they found her curled up in the dirty ragged dress among the ashes on the hearth, fast asleep, with two bowls of peas beside her.
The next day, the same thing happened again. Cinderella came in another fabulous dress with silver slippers to match. Once again, she escaped into her father’s garden and the Prince searched for her under a pear tree. But neither he nor her father could find the girl with the fabulous dress. They only saw dirty little Cinderella sleeping among the ashes.
The Prince knew that he would lose her if he did not find out who she was. So on the third day, he had pitch smeared all over the stairs to the ballroom, so that when she ran away, she might be stuck.
That night, Cinderella came in a dress of gold lace with matching golden slippers. But as she ran away, one shoe was stuck in the pitch on the stairs. The Prince ran down, but alas! He found only one dainty golden shoe on the steps.
He went to Cinderella’s father with the shoe and asked him about the girl.
“She was wearing this shoe, Sir,” he said, “Is there anyone in your house whom this shoe would fit?”
The step-mother asked her elder daughter to try it on. But her toe was too large, so her mother cut it off and pushed her foot into the shoe. But the birds on the hazel tree said she was not the right bride. The Prince saw the blood on the shoe and refused to marry her. The step-mother then pushed the younger daughter’s foot into the shoe, cutting off her heel. But again, the birds revealed that she was not the right bride.
Then the Prince asked if there was any other girl in the house. Cinderella’s father brought the dirty, dusty girl from inside. The Prince found that the shoe fitted her perfectly. As he looked at her in amazement, he found that she was indeed the same girl with whom he had danced!
The doves came and threw the shimmering golden dress over her. The Prince took her up on his horse and took her to his castle to marry her. The dove flew down to sit on her shoulder as they rode away.
