“Cinderella, or The Glass Slipper.” The Book of Fables and Folk Stories, Horace Elisha Scudder, Boston: Houghton Mifflin; 1919, pp. 58-69.

Tale Summary

There was once a man who remarried after losing his wife, wanting someone to help look after his beautiful daughter. His new wife seemed pleasant at first, but revealed herself to be unkind, and had two daughters just the same as her, who made his daughter do many hard chores and treated her unwell. They called her Cinderella or the cinder-maid, because she sat in the corner with the ashes after finishing her work. The king’s son was to host a ball, to which all of the rich were invited, including Cinderella’s step-sisters. She worked hard for them, working on their dresses and doing their hair, while they teased her and argued with each other. Although Cinderella said she knew it was not proper for her to go, as soon as the step-sisters left, she began to weep. The girl’s fairy godmother appeared and told her to fetch a pumpkin, which was turned into a splendid coach. She then fetched six mice from the kitchen mouse-trap, which all became horses, and three rats from the rat trap, which were turned into coachmen. Next, Cinderella brought six lizards, which the fairy turned into six footmen. Her godmother then turned her rags into a dress of silver and gold, and on her feet two glass slippers. She told the girl that she could go to the ball, but warned her not to stay past midnight, because the spell would be broken. Everyone was amazed by her beauty and riches when she arrived, and the prince himself went to meet her, and the rest of the night could not keep his eyes off of her. Cinderella spent the evening sitting with her step-sisters, who could not imagine who it really was. She left for home at a quarter to midnight, and there told her godmother about the night, when her step-sisters arrived. Cinderella pretended to have been woken, marveled at their story of the beautiful princess, and asked the eldest sister (Lady Javotte) to borrow a yellow dress to see for herself, and was not at all displeased when she refused. The next night of the ball, the fairy again prepared Cinderella, and again the prince was very taken with her, and was so charming that the girl forgot about the time, and at the first stroke of midnight ran off but left behind a glass slipper in her haste. A few days later, the prince sent a messenger to travel the kingdom with the slipper, and declared that he would marry whoever fit it. When it came to Cinderella’s house, and the two step-sisters could not fit it, she asked if she could try. Seeing that she was very fair, the messenger agreed, and it fit her like wax. The fairy again, unseen, transformed her into the beautiful princess, and the step-sisters begged for forgiveness, which was readily given. Cinderella took the two with her to the palace where she married the prince, and eventually became Queen.