but
the step-mother said,

"No, Aschenputtel, you have no proper clothes, and you do not know how
to dance, and you would be laughed at!"

And when Aschenputtel cried for disappointment, she added,

"If you can pick two dishes full of lentils out of the ashes, nice and
clean, you shall go with us," thinking to herself, "for that is not
possible." When she had strewed two dishes full of lentils among the
ashes the maiden went through the back-door into the garden, and cried,

"O gentle doves, O turtle-doves,
And all the birds that be,
The lentils that in ashes lie
Come and pick up for me!
The good must be put in the dish,
The bad you may eat if you wish."

So there came to the kitchen-window two white doves, and then some
turtle-doves, and at last a crowd of all the other birds under heaven,
chirping and fluttering, and they alighted among the ashes, and the
doves nodded with their heads and began to pick, peck, pick, peck, and
then all the others began to pick, peck, pick, peck, and put all the
good grains into the dish. And before half-an-hour was over it was all
done, and they flew away. Then the maiden took the dishes to the
step-mother, feeling joyful, and thinking that now she should go with
them to the feast; but she said "All this is of no good to you; you
cannot come with us, for you have no proper clothes, and cannot dance;
you would put us to shame."

Then she turned her back on poor Aschenputtel, and made haste to set out
with her two proud daughters.

And as there was no one left in the house, Aschenputtel went to her
mother's grave, under the hazel bush, and cried,

"Little tree, little tree, shake over me,
That silver and gold may come down and cover me."

Then the bird threw down a dress of gold and silver, and a pair of
slippers embroidered with silk and silver. And in all haste she put on
the dress and went to the festival. But her step-mother and sisters did
not know her, and thought she must be a foreign princess, she looked so
beautiful in her golden dress. Of Aschenputtel they never thought at
all, and supposed that she was sitting at home, and picking the lentils
out of the ashes. The King's son came to meet her, and took her by the
hand and danced with her, and he refused to stand up with any one else,
so that he might not be obliged to let go her hand; and when any one
came to claim it he answered,

"She is my partner."

And when the evening ca