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WHITE AND BLACK. |
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beautiful dress, and the mother with her daughter—while Rudy sat on the box and drove. After they had travelled a little way, Rudy said to his sister : " Take care, dear sister, that you do not crush your beautiful clothes; I want you to look well and neat when you are taken to the king."
But the maiden could not hear distinctly, so she said to her mother : "What does my dear brother say?"
" Oh," she replied, "he says you must take off your gold embroidered clothes and give them to your sister."
She immediately did as her step-mother said, and the black maiden dressed herself in the royal clothes, and gave her dark grey frock to her beautiful step-sister.
Then they travelled on still farther and Rudy again told his little sister to take care of her clothes and keep herself nice, that she might appear beautiful before the king, but she could not hear, and said : " What does my brother say ?"
" He says, now," replied the stepmother, "that you are to give your sister your golden cap."
So the cap was taken off, and the beautiful maiden's hair fell around her face and shoulders without any other ornament. And so they travelled on till they came near to a brook, in which the water was very deep. Again her brother said something to her which she could not hear, and asked her stepmother.
" He says," replied the wicked woman, "that we must all get down here while he rests his horse."
The maiden stood up, thinking the carriage was going to stop, but as it still moved on, she lost her balance, and the cruel woman gave her a push, which sent her backwards into the deep water. At the moment she sank, a snow-whke duck appeared on the surface of the water, and swam about The brother, who had not noticed what happened, drove on till they came to the castle. They alighted, and the coachman, who really thought the black maiden was his sister, when he saw the sparkle and glitter of her dress, led her to the king. When the king caught sight of the dreadful ugliness of the maiden, he was so angry with the coachman that he ordered him to be thrown into a dungeon full of snakes and vipers. The old witch, however, knew how to bewitch the king and blind his eyes, and she managed him so completely that he allowed her and her daughter to remain at the castle, and |
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