r
coach will disappear."

After promising to remember the warning of the tree, Maria went to the
ball, where she was received by the prince very graciously. All the
ladies were astonished when they saw her: she was the most beautiful
of all. Then she sat between her two sisters, but neither Rosa nor
Damiana recognized her. The prince danced with her all the time. When
Maria saw that it was half-past eleven, she bade farewell to the prince
and all the ladies present, and went home. When she reached the garden,
the tree changed her beautiful clothes back into her old ones, and the
coach disappeared. Then she went to bed and to sleep. When her sisters
came home, they told her of everything that had happened at the ball.

The next night the prince gave another ball. After Rosa and Damiana
had dressed themselves in their best clothes and gone, Maria again
went to the garden to ask for beautiful clothes. This time she was
given a coach drawn by five (?) horses, and again the tree warned
her to return before twelve. The prince was delighted to see her,
and danced with her the whole evening. Maria was so enchanted that
she forgot to notice the time. While she was dancing, she heard the
clock striking twelve. She ran as fast as she could down stairs and
out the palace-door, but in her haste she dropped one of her golden
slippers. This night she had to walk home, and in her old ragged
clothes, too. One of her golden slippers she had with her; but the
other, which she had dropped at the door, was found by one of the
guards, who gave it to the prince. The guard said that the slipper
had been lost by the beautiful lady who ran out of the palace when
the clock was striking twelve. Then the prince said to all the people
present, "The lady whom this slipper fits is to be my wife."

The next morning the prince ordered one of his guards to carry
the slipper to every house in the city to see if its owner could
be found. The first house visited was the one in which Maria
lived. Rosa tried to put the slipper on her foot, but her foot was
much too big. Then Damiana put it on her foot, but her foot was too
small. The two sisters tried and tried again to make the slipper fit,
but in vain. Then Maria told them that she would try, and see if
the slipper would fit her foot; but her sisters said to her, "Your
feet are very dirty. This golden slipper will not go on your foot,
for your feet are larger than ours." And they laughed at her. But
the