ut:

"Be careful! Be careful! I'm here, and you'll cut me up." And he had
to dodge the knife as it was coming through the wolf.

But at last the paunch of the wolf was slit open, and Thumbkin jumped
out and went to his mother. And she cleansed him and dressed him in
new clothes, and they sat down to supper as happy as could be.

[Illustration:

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?"]

SNOWWHITE

There was once a queen who had no children, and it grieved her sorely.
One winter's afternoon she was sitting by the window sewing when she
pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. Then
she thought to herself:

"Ah, what would I give to have a daughter with skin as white as snow
and cheeks as red as blood."

After a while a little daughter came to her with skin as white as
snow and cheeks as red as blood. So they called her Snowwhite.

But before Snowwhite had grown up, her mother, the Queen, died and her
father married again, a most beautiful princess who was very vain of
her beauty and jealous of all women who might be thought as beautiful
as she was. And every morning she used to stand before her mirror and
say:

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

And the mirror always used to reply:

"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,
The greatest beauty is thine own."

But Snowwhite grew fairer and fairer every year, till at last one day
when the Queen in the morning spoke to her mirror and said:

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

the mirror replied:

"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,
Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own."

Then the Queen grew terribly jealous of Snowwhite and thought and
thought how she could get rid of her, till at last she went to a
hunter and engaged him for a large sum of money to take Snowwhite out
into the forest and there kill her and bring back her heart.

But when the hunter had taken Snowwhite out into the forest and
thought to kill her, she was so beautiful that his heart failed him,
and he let her go, telling her she must not, for his sake and for her
own, return to the King's palace. Then he killed a deer and took back
the heart to the Queen, telling her that it was the heart of
Snowwhite.

Snowwhite wandered on and on till she got through the forest and came
to a mountain hut and knocked at the door, but she got no reply. She
was so tired that