There was once an honest gentle man who took for his second wife a
lady, the proudest and most disagreeable in the whole country. She had
two daughters exactly like herself in all things. He also had one
little girl, who resembled her dead mother, the best woman in all the
world. Scarcely had the second marriage taken place, than the
stepmother became jealous of the good qualities of the little girl,
who was so great a contrast to her own two daughters. She gave her all
the menial occupations of the house; compelled her to wash the floors
and staircases, to dust the bed-rooms, and clean the grates; and while
her sisters occupied carpeted chambers hung with mirrors, where they
could see themselves from head to foot, this poor little damsel was
sent to sleep in an attic, on an old straw mattress, with only one
chair and not a looking-glass in the room.
She suffered all in silence, not daring to complain to her father, who
was entirely ruled by his new wife. When her daily work was done she
used to sit down in the chimney-corner among the ashes; from which the
two sisters gave her the nick-name of _Cinderella_. But Cinderella,
however shabbily clad, was handsomer than they were with all their
fine clothes.
It happened that the king's son gave a series of balls, to which were
invited all the rank and fashion of the city, and among the rest the
two elder sisters.
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