The mother gave a cry of greed and stooped to gather up the pearls. The flowers she allowed to remain where they were.
“What is it? What has happened?” cried the ugly sister, pressing forward.
“Silence!” cried the mother, speaking angrily to the ugly one for the first time in her life. “Her words are worth more than yours.” Then she stood up again. “Speak! Speak!” she cried to the younger sister, and as she did not immediately do this, the mother struck her to make her be quicker in her speech.
Frightened and bewildered, the young girl burst into tears, but, as the tear drops fell from her eyes, they were changed by the fairy spell, and reached the floor as glittering diamonds, that rolled about this way and that.
“It is magic!” cried the mother, delighted. “Tell me, my daughter, how has this happened? Whom did you meet while you were away?”
“I met no one,” answered her daughter, “but an old woman by the fountain, who asked me for a drink of water. I gave it to her, and then she told me that roses and pearls should fall from my lips when I spoke, and my tears be changed to diamonds, but I did not believe her, for who could believe such a thing as that?”
“It was a fairy,” cried the mother. Then she turned to the elder daughter, her eyes glistening with greed. “Quick!” she cried. “Take the silver pitcher, for it is the best we have in the house, and take also some of those cream cakes that have just been baked. Go to the fountain and look for the old woman, and when you see her offer her the cream cakes and draw for her a drink from the fountain. If she gave your sister such a gift in return for a drink from the earthen pitcher, how much more will she not do for you when you serve her from silver?”
The elder girl, who was very lazy, began to grumble. It was far to the fountain; the pitcher was heavy; why should she go when all they had to do was to gather up the diamonds and pearls that her sister scattered about.
The mother, however, would not listen to her. She put the cream cakes in her pocket, the pitcher in her hand, and pushed her gently from the door, bidding her hurry or the old woman might have disappeared.
The lazy girl went lagging down the road, swinging her pitcher as she went, and now and then stopping to pick up stones and throw them at the birds that sang on either hand. It took her twice as long as it had taken her sister to get to the fountain. When at last she reached it, there was no one there.