Stranica 154 [154]
* ASCHENPUT TEL "
HERE was once a rich man whose wife
lay sick, and when she felt her end
drawing near she called to her only
daughter to come near her bed, and
said,
“Dear child, be pious and good,
and God will always take care of you,
and I will look down upon you from
heaven, and will be with you.”
And then she closed her eyes and expired. ‘The maiden
went every day to her mother’s grave and wept, and was
always pious and good. When the winter came the snow
covered the grave with a white covering, and when the sur
came in the early spring and melted it away, the man took t
himself another wife.
The new wife brought two daughters home with her, anc
they were beautiful and fair in appearance, but at heart wer
black and ugly. And then began very evil times for the poo
step-daughter.
“Ts the stupid creature to sit in the same room with us?
said they; "those who eat food must earn it. Out upon he
for a kitchen-maid !”
They took away her pretty dresses, and put on her an ol
gray kirtle, and gave her wooden shoes to wear.
“ Tust look now at the proud princess, how she is decke:
out!” cried they laughing, and then they sent her into th
kitchen. There she was obliged to do heavy work fror
morning to night, get up early in the morning, draw wate: