Illustration]

Meantime the queen went home to her glass, and trembled with rage
when she received exactly the same answer as before; and she said
"Snow-White shall die, if it costs me my life." So she went secretly
into a chamber, and prepared a poisoned apple; the outside looked very
rosy and tempting, but whosoever tasted it was sure to die. Then she
dressed herself up as a peasant's wife, and travelled over the hills
to the dwarfs' cottage, and knocked at the door; but Snow-White put
her head out of the window, and said, "I dare not let anyone in, for
the dwarfs have told me not to." "Do as you please," said the old
woman, "but at any rate take this pretty apple; I will make you a
present of it." "No," said Snow-White, "I dare not take it." "You
silly girl!" answered the other, "what are you afraid of? Do you think
it is poisoned? Come! do you eat one part, and I will eat the other."
Now the apple was so prepared that one side was good, though the other
side was poisoned. Then Snow-White was very much tempted to taste, for
the apple looked exceedingly nice; and when she saw the old woman eat,
she could refrain no longer. But she had scarcely put the piece into
her mouth, when she fell down dead upon the ground. "This time nothing
will save thee," said the queen; and she went home to her glass, and
at last it said,

"Thou, Queen, art the fairest of all the fair."

And then her envious heart was glad, and as happy as such a heart
could be.

When evening came, and the dwarfs returned home, they found Snow-White
lying on the ground; no breath passed her lips, and they were afraid
that she was quite dead. They lifted her up, and combed her hair,
and washed her face with wine and water; but all was in vain, for the
little girl seemed quite dead. So they laid her down upon a bier, and
all seven watched and bewailed her three whole days; and then they
proposed to bury her; but her cheeks were still rosy, and her face
looked just as it did while she was alive; so they said, "We will
never bury her in the cold ground." And they made a coffin of glass
so that they might still look at her, and wrote her name upon it in
golden letters, and that she was a king's daughter. And the coffin
was placed upon the hill, and one of the dwarfs always sat by it and
watched. And the birds of the air came too, and bemoaned Snow-White.
First of all came an owl, and then a raven, but at last came a dove.

And thus Snow-White lay for