Fairy Tales for Young Readers Read Free Page B

girls. Also, he disliked the elder sisters as much as any one possibly could on so short an acquaintance. When you knew them better, of course, it was different.
    So poor Cinderella came, all ragged and dusty, but with her bright beauty shining through the dust and the rags like the moon through clouds. And the herald knew that she was the lost Princess, even before she slipped on the little glass shoe, pulled the other one from her pocket, slipped that on too, and stood up in the pair of them.
    â€œFound!” cried the herald. “Oh, joy! the long-lost Princess! You are to come with me at once to the palace.”
    â€œI can’t come like this,” said Cinderella, looking at her rags. “I can’t, and I won’t!”
    But the fairy godmother appeared most opportunely from the cupboard under the stairs where the boots and galoshes were kept, and with one wave of her wand clothed Cinderella from head to foot in cloth-of-splendour.
    Then Cinderella looked at her unkind sisters, and said timidly, “Goodbye.”
    And the sisters looked at her, and frowned, and “Goodbye” said they.
    Then the fairy smiled, and, pointing her wand at them, said, “Speak the truth.” And there in the presence of Cinderella and the fairy and the herald and each other and the hat-and-umbrella-stand they had to speak it.
    â€œI have been very unkind and hateful to Cinderella,” said Dressalinda, “and I am very sorry. I have been sorry since the night before last, but I was ashamed to say so. Iam sorry because on that night I lost my heart to a good gentleman, who lost his to me, and I hate the thought of all the wickedness that makes me unworthy of him.”
    â€œThat’s right,” said the herald kindly. “‘A fault that’s owned, is half atoned.’ And what does the other lady say?”
    â€œI say the same as my sister,” said Marigolda, “and I hope Cinderella will forgive us.”
    â€œOf course I do,” said Cinderella heartily. So that was settled.
    They all went to Court—the fairy godmother made the pumpkin coach again in a moment—and Prince Charming met Cinderella at the steps of the palace, and kissed her before the whole crowd there assembled, and every one cheered, and a chorus of invisible fairies sang:
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  “ Take her, O Prince, faithful and true;
That little foot was just made for the shoe.
We are so glad! Every one knew
That little Princess was just made for you.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  “ Shout for the pair, Army and Fleet!
Lonely policeman, hurrah on your beat!
May life be long, joy be complete,
Rose-strewn the path of those dear little feet! ”
    The two noble gentlemen rushed forward, as soon as politeness to the Prince allowed, to greet their dear ladies, who had been the wicked sisters, and who now were so sorry and ashamed, because love had taught them to wish to be good.
    They were all married the next day, and when Marigolda and Dressalinda confessed to their father how horrid they had been to Cinderella, he said, “Dear, dear! And I never noticed! How remiss of me!” and went back to his books.
    But the cruel step-mother, who had brought up her children so badly, and who was not sorry at all, was sent to a Home for the Incurably Unkind. She is treated kindly,but she is not allowed the chance of being unkind to any one else.
    And Cinderella and Charming and the sisters and their husbands all lived exactly as long as was good for them, and loved each other more and more every day of their lives. And no one can ask for a better fate than that!

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

    T HERE WAS ONCE a rich merchant, who had a “town house replete with every modern convenience,” and a “country house standing in its own grounds of seventeen acres, agreeably situated in the most delightful rural scenery, with vineries, pineries,