Once upon a time there was a widow who had two
daughters; one of them was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy.
The mother, however, loved the ugly and lazy one best, because she was her own
daughter, and so the other, who was only her stepdaughter, was made to do all
the work of the house, and was quite the Cinderella of the family. Her
stepmother sent her out every day to sit by the well in the high road, there to
spin until she made her fingers bleed. Now it chanced one day that some blood fell
on to the spindle, and as the girl stopped over the well to wash it off, the
spindle suddenly sprang out of her hand and fell into the well. She ran home
crying to tell of her misfortune, but her stepmother spoke harshly to her, and
after giving her a violent scolding, said unkindly, ‘As you have let the
spindle fall into the well you may go yourself and fetch it out.’
The girl went back to the well not knowing what to
do, and at last in her distress she jumped into the water after the spindle.
She remembered nothing more until she awoke and
found herself in a beautiful meadow, full of sunshine, and with countless
flowers blooming in every direction.
She walked over the meadow, and presently she came
upon a baker’s oven full of bread, and the loaves cried out to her, ‘Take us
out, take us out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through
long ago.’ So she took the bread-shovel and drew them all out.
She went on a little farther, till she came to a
tree full of apples. ‘Shake me, shake me, I pray,’ cried the tree; ‘my apples,
one and all, are ripe.’ So she shook the tree, and the apples came falling down
upon her like rain; but she continued shaking until there was not a single
apple left upon it. Then she carefully gathered the apples together in a heap
and walked on again.
The next thing she came to was a little house, and
there she saw an old woman looking out, with such large teeth, that she was
terrified, and turned to run away. But the old woman called after her, ‘What
are you afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do the work of my
house properly for me, I will make you very happy. You must be very careful,
however, to make my bed in the right way, for I wish you always to shake it
thoroughly, so that the feathers fly about; then they say, down there in the
world, that it is snowing; for I am Mother Holle.’ The old woman spoke so
kindly, that the girl summoned up courage and agreed to enter into her service.
She took care to do everything according to the old
woman’s bidding and every time she made the bed she shook it with all her
might, so that the feathers flew about like so many snowflakes. The old woman
was as good as her word: she never spoke angrily to her, and gave her roast and
boiled meats every day.
So she stayed on with Mother Holle for some time,
and then she began to grow unhappy. She could not at first tell why she felt
sad, but she became conscious at last of great longing to go home; then she
knew she was homesick, although she was a thousand times better off with Mother
Holle than with her mother and sister. After waiting awhile, she went to Mother
Holle and said, ‘I am so homesick, that I cannot stay with you any longer, for
although I am so happy here, I must return to my own people.’
Then Mother Holle said, ‘I am pleased that you
should want to go back to your own people, and as you have served me so well
and faithfully, I will take you home myself.’
Thereupon she led the girl by the hand up to a
broad gateway. The gate was opened, and as the girl passed through, a shower of
gold fell upon her, and the gold clung to her, so that she was covered with it
from head to foot.
‘That is a reward for your industry,’ said Mother
Holle, and as she spoke she handed her the spindle which she had dropped into
the well.
The gate was then closed, and the girl found
herself back in the old world close to her mother’s house. As she entered the
courtyard, the cock who was perched on the well, called out:
‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Your golden
daughter’s come back to you.’
Then she went in to her mother and sister, and as
she was so richly covered with gold, they gave her a warm welcome. She related
to them all that had happened, and when the mother heard how she had come by
her great riches, she thought she should like her ugly, lazy daughter to go and
try her fortune. So she made the sister go and sit by the well and spin, and
the girl pricked her finger and thrust her hand into a thorn-bush, so that she
might drop some blood on to the spindle; then she threw it into the well, and jumped
in herself.
Like her sister she awoke in the beautiful meadow,
and walked over it till she came to the oven. ‘Take us out, take us out, or
alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long ago,’ cried the
loaves as before. But the lazy girl answered, ‘Do you think I am going to dirty
my hands for you?’ and walked on.
Presently she came to the apple-tree. ‘Shake me,
shake me, I pray; my apples, one and all, are ripe,’ it cried. But she only
answered, ‘A nice thing to ask me to do, one of the apples might fall on my
head,’ and passed on.
At last she came to Mother Holle’s house, and as
she had heard all about the large teeth from her sister, she was not afraid of
them, and engaged herself without delay to the old woman.
The first day she was very obedient and
industrious, and exerted herself to please Mother Holle, for she thought of the
gold she should get in return. The next day, however, she began to dawdle over
her work, and the third day she was more idle still; then she began to lie in bed
in the mornings and refused to get up. Worse still, she neglected to make the
old woman’s bed properly, and forgot to shake it so that the feathers might fly
about. So Mother Holle very soon got tired of her, and told her she might go.
The lazy girl was delighted at this, and thought to herself, ‘The gold will
soon be mine.’ Mother Holle led her, as she had led her sister, to the broad
gateway; but as she was passing through, instead of the shower of gold, a great
bucketful of pitch came pouring over her.
‘That is in return for your services,’ said the old
woman, and she shut the gate.
So the lazy girl had to go home covered with pitch,
and the cock on the well called out as she saw her:
‘Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Your dirty
daughter’s come back to you.’
But, try what she would, she could not get the pitch off and it stuck to her as long as she lived.