s but just that she should try, and that he had orders to let
everyone make trial.
He obliged Cinderella to sit down, and, putting the slipper to her foot,
he found it went on very easily, and fitted her as if it had been made
of wax. The astonishment her two sisters were in was excessively great,
but still abundantly greater when Cinderella pulled out of her pocket
the other slipper, and put it on her foot. Thereupon, in came her
godmother, who, having touched with her wand Cinderella's clothes, made
them richer and more magnificent than any of those she had before.
And now her two sisters found her to be that fine, beautiful lady whom
they had seen at the ball. They threw themselves at her feet to beg
pardon for all the ill-treatment they had made her undergo. Cinderella
took them up, and, as she embraced them, cried:
That she forgave them with all her heart, and desired them always to
love her.
She was conducted to the young prince, dressed as she was; he thought
her more charming than ever, and, a few days after, married her.
Cinderella, who was no less good than beautiful, gave her two sisters
lodgings in the palace, and that very same day matched them with two
great lords of the Court.(1)
(1) Charles Perrault.
ALADDIN AND THE WONDERFUL LAMP
There once lived a poor tailor, who had a son called Aladdin, a
careless, idle boy who would do nothing but play ball all day long in
the streets with little idle boys like himself. This so grieved the
father that he died; yet, in spite of his mother's tears and prayers,
Aladdin did not mend his ways. One day, when he was playing in the
streets as usual, a stranger asked him his age, and if he was not the
son of Mustapha the tailor. "I am, sir," replied Aladdin; "but he died
a long while ago." On this the stranger, who was a famous African
magician, fell on his neck and kissed him, saying, "I am your uncle, and
knew you from your likeness to my brother. Go to your mother and tell
her I am coming." Aladdin ran home and told his mother of his newly
found uncle. "Indeed, child," she said, "your father had a brother, but
I always thought he was dead." However, she prepared supper, and bade
Aladdin seek his uncle, who came laden with wine and fruit. He presently
fell down and kissed the place where Mustapha used to sit, bidding
Aladdin's mother not to be surprised at not having seen him before, as
he had been forty years out of the country. He then turned to
|