“The Fairy.” Tales of Past Times Written for Children, Charles Perrault, illustrated by John Austen, New York: E.P Dutton and Co., 1923, pp. 9-12.

Tale Summary

Once upon a time, there was a very disagreeable widow with two daughters. The eldest was much like her, but the youngest was more like her father and was very beautiful and sweet of temper, and her mother disliked her very much. She made her work constantly and had to twice a day draw water a mile and a half from the house, and bring home a pitcher full. One day, as she was doing this chore, a poor woman came to her and begged her for a drink. The girl agreed, and the woman revealed herself as a fairy, and gave her a gift: for every word she spoke, out of her mouth would come out either a flower or a jewel. When the girl got home and her mother scolded her for being so long, she apologized, and two roses, two pearls, and two diamonds came out of her mouth. She explains what happened, and the mother tells her older daughter to go to the fountain and do the same. The fairy appears to the sister there, this time as a princess, to see how far the girl’s rudeness would go. The girl is very unpleasant, and the fairy gives her this gift: for every word she speaks, out of her mouth will come a snake or a toad. The mother is enraged and goes to punish the younger daughter, who flees into the forest, where she runs into the King’s son. [The book is missing the last page, but from other versions, we can assume it ends with him marrying her, and possibly the death of her stepsister].