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dwarfs soon came home. When they saw Snow-white lying as if dead upon
the ground, they knew at once the Queen had been there, and they
looked and found the comb. Scarcely had they taken it out when
Snow-white came to herself, and told them what had happened. Then
they warned her once more to be upon her guard and to open the door
to no one.

The Queen, at home, went in front of the Glass, and said:

"Looking-glass, Looking-glass, on the wall,
Who in this land is the fairest of all?"

Then it answered as before:

"O Queen, thou art fairest of all I see,
But over the hills, where the seven dwarfs dwell,
Snow-white is still alive and well,
And no one else is so fair as she."

When she heard the Glass speak thus she trembled and shook with rage.

"Snow-white shall die," she cried, "even if it costs me my life!"

She went into a quiet, secret, lonely room, where no one ever came,
and there she made an apple full of poison. It was white with a red
cheek, so that every one who saw it longed for it; but whoever ate a
piece of it must surely die.

When the apple was ready she painted her face, and dressed herself up
as a country-woman, and so she went over the seven hills to the seven
dwarfs. She knocked at the door. Snow-white put her head out of the
window and said:

"I cannot let any one in; the seven dwarfs have told me not to."

"It is all the same to me," said the woman. "I shall soon get rid of
my apples. There, I will give you one."

"No," said Snow-white, "I dare not take anything."

"Are you afraid of poison?" said the old woman. "Look, I will cut the
apple in two pieces; you eat the red cheek, and I will eat the white."
The apple was so cunningly made that only the red cheek was poisoned.
Snow-white longed for the fine apple, and when she saw that the woman
ate part of it she could stand it no longer, and stretched out her
hand and took the other half. But hardly had she a bit of it in her
mouth when she fell down dead. Then the Queen looked at her with a
dreadful look, and laughed aloud and said:

"White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony-wood! This time the
dwarfs cannot wake you up again."

And when she asked of the Looking-glass at home:

"Looking-glass, Looking-glass, on the wall,
Who in this land is fairest of all?"

it answered at last:

"O Queen, in this land thou art fairest of all."

Then her envious heart had rest, so far as an envious heart can have
rest.