let her go. "You! Cinderella?" said she; "you who have nothing to
wear, no clothes at all, and who cannot even dance--you want to go to
the ball?" And when she kept on begging--to get rid of her, she said
at last, "I will throw this basinful of peas into the ash heap, and
if you have picked them all out in two hours' time you shall go to
the feast too." Then she threw the peas into the ashes; but the little
maiden ran out at the back door into the garden, and cried out--

"Hither, hither, through the sky.
Turtle-doves and linnets, fly!
Blackbird, thrush, and chaffinch gay,
Hither, hither, haste away!
One and all, come help me quick,
Haste ye, haste ye--pick, pick, pick!"

[Illustration]

Then first came two white doves flying in at the kitchen window; and
next came two turtle-doves; and after them all the little birds under
heaven came chirping and fluttering in, and flew down into the ashes;
and the little doves stooped their heads down and set to work, pick,
pick, pick; and then the others began to pick, pick, pick; and picked
out all the good grain and put it in a dish, and left the ashes. At
the end of one hour the work was done, and all flew out again at the
windows. Then Cinderella brought the dish to her mother, overjoyed at
the thought that now she should go to the feast. But she said, "No,
no! Girl, you have no clothes and cannot dance, you shall not go." And
when Cinderella begged very hard to go, she said, "If you can in one
hour's time pick two of these dishes of peas out of the ashes, you
shall go too." And thus she thought she should at last get rid of her.