Snow White

Once upon a time, in the middle of winter, when snowflakes
were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen was sitting
and sewing at a window with a black ebony frame.  And as she
was sewing and looking out the window, she pricked her
finger with the needle, and three drops of blood fell on the
snow.  The red looked so beautiful on the white snow that she
thought to herself, If only I had a child as white as snow,
as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window
frame!

Soon after she gave birth to a little daughter who was as
white as snow, as red as blood, and her hair as black as
ebony.  Accordingly, the child was called Snow White, and
right after she was born, the queen died.  When a year had
passed, the king married another woman, who was beautiful
but proud and haughty, and she could not tolerate anyone
else who might rival her beauty.  She had a magic mirror and
often she stood in front of it, looked at herself, and said:

“Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
who in this realm is the fairest of all?”

Then the mirror would answer:

“You, my queen, are the fairest of all.”

That reply would make her content, for she knew the mirror
always told the truth.