RACHEL ROSE

About a year afterwards the King married another wife, who was very beautiful, but so proud and haughty that shecould not bear anyone to be better-looking than herself. She owned a wonderful mirror, and when she steppedbefore it and said:

“Mirror, mirror on the wall,Who is the fairest of us all?”

it replied:

“The Queen is the fairest of the day.”

Then she was pleased, for she knew that the mirror spoke truly.

Little Snow-White, however, grew up, and became prettier and prettier, and when she was seven years old she wasas fair as the noonday, and more beautiful than the Queen herself. When the Queen now asked her mirror:

“Mirror, mirror on the wall,Who is the fairest of us all?”

it replied:

“The Queen was fairest yesterday;Snow-White is the fairest, now, they say.”

[7] This answer so angered the Queen that she became quite yellow with envy. From that hour, whenever she sawSnow-White, her heart was hardened against her, and she hated the little girl. Her envy and jealousy increased sothat she had no rest day or night, and she said to a Huntsman, “Take the child away into the forest. I will never lookupon her again. You must kill her, and bring me her heart and tongue for a token.”

The Huntsman listened and took the maiden away, but when he drew out his knife to kill her, she began to cry,saying, “Ah, dear Huntsman, give me my life! I will run into the wild forest, and never come home again.”