e to my father's door."

And when the Prince's soldiers tried to follow her there came such a
mist that they couldn't see their hands before their faces. So they
couldn't find which way Cinder-Maid went.

When her father and step-mother and two sisters came home after the
ball they could talk of nothing but the lovely lady: "Ah, would not
you have liked to have been there?" said the sisters to Cinder-Maid as
she helped them to take off their fine dresses. "There was a most
lovely lady with a dress like the heavens and shoes of bright copper,
and the Prince would dance with none but her; and when midnight came
she disappeared and the Prince could not find her. He is going to give
a second ball in the hope that she will come again. Perhaps she will
not, and then we will have our chance."

When the time of the second Royal Ball came round the same thing
happened as before; the sisters teased Cinder-Maid saying, "Wouldn't
you like to come with us?" and drove off again as before. And
Cinder-Maid went again to the hazel tree over her mother's grave and
cried:

"Tree o'mine, O tree o'me,
Shiver and shake, dear little tree
Make me a lady fair to see,
Dress me as splendid as can be."

And then the little bird on the tree called out:

"Cinder-Maid, Cinder-Maid, shake the tree,
Open the first nut that you see."

But this time she found a dress all golden brown like the earth
embroidered with flowers, and her shoon were made of silver; and when
the carriage came from the tree, lo and behold, that was made of
silver too, drawn by black horses with trappings all of silver, and
the lace on the coachman's and footmen's liveries was also of silver;
and when Cinder-Maid went to the ball the Prince would dance with none
but her; and when midnight came round she fled as before. But the
Prince, hoping to prevent her running away, had ordered the soldiers
at the foot of the stair-case to pour out honey on the stairs so that
her shoes would stick in it. But Cinder-Maid leaped from stair to
stair and got away just in time, calling out as the soldiers tried to
follow her:

"Mist behind and light before,
Guide me to my father's door."

[Illustration: The Soldier Lays a Honey Trap]

And when her sisters got home they told her once more of the beautiful
lady that had come in a silver coach and silver shoon and in a dress
all embroidered with flowers: "Ah, wouldn't you have liked to have
been there?"