was all through _her_ that
her stepdaughter was married to a prince.

THE ROSE TREE

Once upon a time, long long years ago, in the days when one had to be
careful about witches, there lived a good man, whose young wife died,
leaving him a baby girl.

Now this good man felt he could not look after the baby properly, so he
married a young woman whose husband had died leaving her with a baby
boy.

Thus the two children grew up together, and loved each other dearly,
dearly.

But the boy's mother was really a wicked witch-woman, and so jealous
that she wanted all the boy's love for herself, and when the girl-baby
grew white as milk, with cheeks like roses and lips like cherries, and
when her hair, shining like golden silk, hung down to her feet so that
her father and all the neighbours began to praise her looks, the
stepmother fairly hated her, and did all in her power to spoil her
looks. She would set the child hard tasks, and send her out in all
weathers to do difficult messages, and if they were not well performed
would beat her and scold her cruelly.

Now one cold winter evening when the snow was drifting fast, and the
wild rose tree in the garden under which the children used to play in
summer was all brown and barren save for snowflake flowers, the
stepmother said to the little girl:

"Child! go and buy me a bunch of candles at the grocer's. Here is some
money; go quickly, and don't loiter by the way."

So the little girl took the money and set off quickly through the snow,
for already it was growing dark. Now there was such a wind blowing that
it nearly blew her off her feet, and as she ran her beautiful hair got
all tangled and almost tripped her up. However, she got the candles,
paid for them, and started home again. But this time the wind was behind
her and blew all her beautiful golden hair in front of her like a cloud,
so that she could not see her steps, and, coming to a stile, had to stop
and put down the bundle of candles in order to see how to get over it.
And when she was climbing it a big black dog came by and ran off with
the bunch of candles! Now she was so afraid of her stepmother that she
durst not go home, but turned back and bought another bunch of candles
at the grocer's, and when she arrived at the stile once more, the same
thing happened. A big black dog came down the road and ran away with the
bunch of candles. So yet once again she journeyed back to the grocer's
through wind a