GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES - online book
130 Fairy Stories Adapted & Arranged for young people
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THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE. |
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vanished, and his wife sitting in the old hut, an example of the consequences of impious ambition. |
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Once upon a time the wife of a rich man fell sick, and as she knew her end was approaching she called her only daughter to her bedside, and said, " Dear child, when I am gone continue good and pious, and Heaven will help you in every trouble, and I will be your guardian angel."
Soon after this the mother closed her eyes in death, and day after day the maiden went to her mother's grave to weep. But she never forgot her last words, and continued pious and gentle to all around her. Winter came and covered the grave with its dazzling drapery of snow; but when the bright sun of spring again warmed the earth, the husband had taken to himself another wife. This wife had been already married, and she brought with her two daughters who were fair and beautiful in appearance, while at heart they were evil minded and malicious. It soon became a very sad time for their poor step-sister, of whom they were very envious, and at last persuaded their mother to send her to the kitchen.
"Is the stupid goose to sit in the parlour with us?" they said. " Those who eat ought to work. Send her into the kitchen with the kitchen-maid."
Then they took away all her nice clothes, and gave her an ugly old frock and wooden shoes, which she was obliged to put on.
"Look at our fine princess now. See how she has dressed herself," they said, laughing, and driving her into the kitchen.
And there she was obliged to remain doing hard work from morning till night; and she had to rise early to draw water, to light the fire, to cook and to wash. Besides all this her stepsisters invented all sorts of ways to make her more unhappy. They would either treat her with scorn or else push her out of their way so roughly that she sometimes fell among the pea shells and cabbage leaves that lay in the yard.
At night, when she was tired with her work, she had no bed to |
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