“Good wares, smart wares,” answered the queen—“bodice laces of all colors;” and drew out one which was woven of colored silk.
“I may surely let this honest dame in!” thought Snowdrop; so she unfastened the door, and bought for herself the pretty lace.
“Child,” said the old woman, “what a figure thou art! Let me lace thee for once properly.” Snowdrop feared no harm, so stepped in front of her, and allowed her bodice to be fastened up with the new lace.
But the old woman laced so quick and laced so tight that Snowdrop’s breath was stopped, and she fell down as if dead. “Now I am fairest at last,” said the old woman to herself, and sped away.
The seven dwarfs came home soon after, at eventide, but how alarmed were they to find their poor Snowdrop lifeless on the ground! They lifted her up, and, seeing that she was laced too tightly, cut the lace of her bodice; she began to breathe faintly, and slowly returned to life. When the dwarfs heard what had happened, they said, “The old pedler-woman was none other than the wicked queen. Be careful of thyself, and open the door to no one if we are not at home.”
The cruel stepmother walked up to her mirror when she reached home, and said:
“Little glass upon the wall,
Who is fairest among us all?”
To which it answered, as usual:
“Lady queen, so grand and tall,
Here you are fairest of them all;
But over the hills, with the seven dwarfs old,
Lives Snowdrop, fairer a hundredfold.”
When she heard this she was so alarmed that all the blood rushed to her heart, for she saw plainly that Snowdrop was still alive.