Before long two laborers saw the strange procession and said, “We must find out about this,” and caught hold of the clerk, and then they stuck tight and all of them moved into the next town where the king lived with his daughter.
The daughter was sick and sad and had not smiled or laughed for a year, but when she saw Dummling and the crowd following him she began to laugh. She laughed so loud that the goose cackled and a feather came out. Then everybody pulled loose from one another and they ran down the road as fast as they could.
But Dummling went to live with the king and whenever the king needed money, the goose cackled and dropped a gold feather, but another one soon grew in its place.
CINDERELLA
In which the poor little sister whom no one thought beautiful, becomes the wife of the prince.
Cinderella was a good girl who lived with her step-mother and her two sisters, who were unkind to her. The ugly sisters went to many parties and wore beautiful dresses; but Cinderella had nothing but rags and lived in a dark room. One night the sisters were going to the prince’s ball, and Cinderella had to dress them. Her heart was almost broken because she wished to wear a beautiful dress.
Away went the sisters looking very grand and never thinking of their sister crying at home. While Cinderella was weeping all alone in her dark room, some one came in—a lovely fairy who wore dainty slippers and a pointed cap, and who carried a wand. “I will see that you go to the prince’s ball,” said the fairy god-mother, and began waving her wand.
In a few minutes the pumpkin from the garden had been changed into a carriage. Two mice and two large rats from the pantry were changed into horses and coachmen. The little maid was changed from a cinder maid into a beautiful young girl in a lovely white dress, with silver stars in her hair, and a shining crown on her head. From the pocket of the god-mother came a dainty pair of glass slippers for her feet. She could go to the ball now. The only thing for her to remember was to be back before the clock struck twelve. At that hour she would be changed again to the cinder maid.
Cinderella went away to the ball promising her god-mother to be back on time. Many lovely maidens were found there dancing, but none so beautiful as Cinderella. The prince saw her and could think of no other. He danced with her many times and begged for her name, but this she would not tell.