Looking down on the side of the path she saw a tiny old woman following her as she walked along. She wondered what the old woman was going to do, but she could get no answers to her questions except: “Wait and see.”
“What kind of an old woman are you?” asked Gretchen’s mother.
“I am called the looking-glass witch,” answered the old woman. “I make people see themselves as others see them. Sometimes they look very pretty, and sometimes they look very ugly.”
Gretchen met her mother at the gate. She was dressed ready for a party, and with a basket of roses in her hand. She looked very pretty indeed. The mother stooped to kiss her little girl. The basket fell and all the roses spilled out on the ground. Quicker than thought Gretchen’s face began to change. She became very angry. She no longer smiled, but began to frown and wrinkle her face with rage. Her eyes turned green instead of blue, and her face was red and spotted. Then the old woman stepped out from behind Gretchen’s mother and faced the angry child.
“Oh, Gretchen, Gretchen, look!” cried the mother.
There upon the lawn stood the ugliest old woman that Gretchen had ever seen. Her eyes were large mirrors, and in each one Gretchen saw herself, only she was very ugly. Her hair was stiff and black, and on each strand danced a horrid imp. They each held a mirror in which seemed to be an ugly Gretchen mocking her.
“Oh, mother!” cried the little girl, as she hid behind her mother’s skirt, “I am not so ugly as that, am I?”
“Yes, you are,” cried the old woman, “and you will grow uglier and uglier if you do not stop losing your temper.” With this the old woman vanished.
But the lesson was learned, and ever after when Gretchen began to be angry she thought of the looking-glass witch and changed her mind.