Cinderella



The good ones into the potty, the bad ones into the jug. Rucke di guck, rucke di guck, blood is in the shoe: The shoe is too small, the right bride is still sitting at home.

A rich man's wife fell ill. And when she felt that she would soon die, she called her only daughter to her bedside and said: "Dear child, stay pious and good, and God will always stand by you. And I will look down on you from heaven and be with you." Then she closed her eyes and died. The girl went out every day to her mother's grave and wept. And she remained pious and good. When winter came, the snow covered the grave with a white cloth. When the sun brought it down again in spring, the man took another wife.
The woman had brought into the house two daughters who were beautiful to look at but wicked at heart. There began a bad time for the poor stepchild. "Shall the silly goose sit with us in the parlor?" they said. "He who wants to eat bread must earn it. Out with the kitchen maid." They took away his beautiful clothes, put on a gray old smock, and gave him wooden shoes. "Look at the proud princess, all dressed up!" they shouted, laughed and took her to the kitchen. There she had to do hard work from morning till evening, getting up before dawn, carrying water, lighting the fire, cooking and washing. In addition, the sisters did everything possible to him, mocked him and poured the peas and lentils into the ashes, so that he had to sit down and collect them again. In the evening, when it had worked itself tired, it did not come into a bed, but had to lie down beside the stove in the ashes. And because it always looked dusty and dirty, they called it Cinderella.
It happened that the father once wanted to go shopping at a market. There he asked the two stepdaughters what he should bring them? "Beautiful clothes," said one of them, "pearls and precious stones," said the second. "But you, Cinderella," he said, "what do you want?" "Father, the first green branch that bumps against your hat on your way home, break it off for me." He now bought for the two stepsisters beautiful clothes, pearls and precious stones, and on the way back, as he rode through a green bush, he brushed against a hazel branch and knocked the hat off his head. Then he broke off the branch and took it with him.