the queen herself. So the proud woman went to her magic looking-glass,
and asked:

"Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Am I most beautiful of all?"

But the mirror answered:

"Queen, thou are lovely still to see,
But Snow-white will be
A thousand times more beautiful than thee."

Then the queen was terrified, and turned green and yellow with jealousy.
If she had caught sight of Snow-white at that moment, she would have
been ready to tear her heart out of her body, she hated the maiden so
fiercely.

And this jealousy and envy grew every day stronger and stronger in her
heart, like a disease, till she had no rest day or night.

At last she sent for a hunter, who lived near a forest, and said to him,
"Hunter, I want to get rid of that child. Take her out into the wood,
and if you bring me some proofs that she is dead, I will reward you
handsomely. Never let her appear before my eyes again."

So the hunter enticed the child into the wood; but when he took out his
hunting-knife to thrust into Snow-white's innocent heart, she fell on
her knees and wept, and said, "Ah, dear hunter, leave me my life; I will
run away into the wild wood, and never, never come home any more."