falling around, that a certain queen sat working at the window, the
frame of which was made of fine black ebony; and as she was looking
out upon the snow, she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood
fell upon it. Then she gazed thoughtfully upon the red drops which
sprinkled the white snow, and said, "Would that my little daughter
may be as white as that snow, as red as the blood, and as black as the
ebony window-frame!" And so the little girl grew up: her skin was as
white as snow, her cheeks as rosy as blood, and her hair as black as
ebony; and she was called Snow-White.

But this queen died; and the king soon married another wife, who was
very beautiful, but so proud that she could not bear to think that any
one could surpass her. She had a magical looking-glass, to which she
used to go and gaze upon herself in it, and say,

"Tell me, glass, tell me true!
Of all the ladies in the land.
Who is fairest? Tell me who?"

And the glass answered, "Thou, Queen, art fairest in the land."

But Snow-White grew more and more beautiful; and when she was seven
years old, she was as bright as the day, and fairer than the queen
herself. Then the glass one day answered the queen, when she went to
consult it as usual:

"Thou, Queen, may'st fair and beauteous be,
But Snow-White is lovelier far than thee!"

When she heard this she turned pale with rage and envy; and calling