Stranica 275 [275]
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SNOW-WHITE. 219
And the looking-glass answered as before,
‘** Queen, thou art of beauty rare,
But Snow-white living in the glen
With the seven little men
Is a thousand times more fair.”’
When she heard the looking-glass speak thus she trembled
and shook with anger.
‘“‘Snow-white shall die,” cried she, “ though it should cost
me my own life!” And then she went to a secret lonely
chamber, where no one was likely to come, and there she
made a poisonous apple. It was beautiful to look upon, being
white with red cheeks, so that any one who should see it must
long for it, but whoever ate even a little bit of it must die.
When the apple was ready she painted her face and clothed
herself like a peasant woman, and went across the seven
mountains to where the seven dwarfs lived. And when she
knocked at the door Snow-white put her head out of the
window and said,
“J dare not let anybody in ; the seven dwarfs told me not.”
‘All right,” answered the woman ; “I can easily get rid of
my apples elsewhere. ‘There, I will give you one.”
" No,” answered Snow-white, "I dare not take anything.”
‘Are you afraid of poison?” said the woman, “look here,
I will cut the apple in two pieces; you shall have the red
side, I will have the white one.”
For the apple was so cunningly made, that all the poison
was in the rosy half of it. Snow-white longed for the beautiful
apple, and as she saw the peasant woman eating a piece of it
she could no longer refrain, but stretched out her hand and
took the poisoned half. But no sooner had she taken a
morsel of it into her mouth than she fell to the earth as dead.
And the queen, casting on her a terrible glance, laughed aloud
and cried,
“As white as snow, as red as blood, as black as ebony!
this time the dwarfs will not be able to bring you to life again.”
And when she went home and asked the looking-glass,
‘* Looking-glass against the wall,
Who is fairest of us all?”
at last it answered,