Then the lady hung a donkey’s tail on the end of her nose, and gave her a big bag of charcoal, and sent her back to her home. And when her mother saw her she was so ashamed that she locked her in the cellar.
As for the youngest girl, she shared her sack of gold with her mother and other sister, and then she married a fine young man, and lived happily ever after.
THE PIXIES
From England
There was once a little cottage in the middle of a flower garden. Its walls were covered with roses, and its porch was twined with clematis. The bees buzzed over the flowers, and the butterflies fluttered about the porch. And a hundred little green Pixies lived in the wood near by.
In this cottage two orphan sisters dwelt all alone. One morning the elder sister, Mary, got up at break of day. She milked the cow, churned the butter, swept the hearth, and made the breakfast. Then she sat on the porch to spin, and sang:—
“How merrily the wheel goes round,
With a whirring, humming sound!”