 Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Ella.
Her family lived in a grand comfortable house and Ella was happy until her mother died. Then, after a year, Ella's father
married again.
Ella's new stepmother had two daughters. They were ugly, ill-tempered girls, but their mother could see no fault in them.
Instead, from morning till night, she found fault with Ella.
"What a good-for-nothing that girl is!" the stepmother would say, glaring at Ella. "Why she should have the best bedroom. I
don't know. She is so untidy. She should live in the kitchen."
So Ella was turned out of her room, which was taken over by her ugly stepsisters, and sent to live amongst the cinders in
the kitchen.
All her nice dresses were left behind upstairs and also taken by her stepsisters. Poor Ella, with nothing but thin old
clothes to wear, crouched near the fire to keep warm.
Her ugly sisters came to laugh at her.
"As you spend so much time amongst the cinders, we will name you Cinderella," the jeered.
From that time on, Ella was called Cinderella by everyone.
The truth was that Cinderella was a tidy, beautiful, well-behaved girl. Her ugly stepsisters were jealous and wanted her out
of sight, so that she would not find a husband before they did.
Whenever the stepmother heard of a rich, handsome young man, who needed a wife, she invited him to dinner and sat him
between her daughters.
"My girls are so beautiful," she would say. "They have lovely singing voices. They are clever at managing servants. They
would make wonderful wives."
If the young men dared to ask after their host's other daughter, they would be told that Cinderella was away and that in any
case, she was not interested in getting married.
So the months went by Cinderella was made to work hard, scrubbing floors, preparing food, washing clothes and sewing and
mending.
Most of the servants were dismissed.
"Why should we pay servants when Cinderella is here to do the work?" Laughed the cruel stepmother and the ugly sisters.
Then, one day, an invitation arrived from the palace. It said that the king and queen were looking for a bride for their
son, Price Charming, and that a grand ball would be held to which all the daughters of good families were invited.
The ugly stepsisters were thrilled. "Here is our chance to marry Prince Charming," they gloated. "Cinderella! Come up here
at once. You must make new dresses for us. You are lazy, but you are quite clever at needlework. Oh, and arrange our hair in
different styles. We must look our very best to meet Price Charming."
Cinderella saw the invitation lying on the table. She read it.
"It says that all daughters of good families are invited to the ball," she said. "That means that I am invited as well. May
I ask father to buy me material for a nice new dress and go with you to the ball?"
At once the ugly sisters snatched up the invitation and hid it.
"You!" they shouted. "How can you go to a ball at the palace? Your hands are stained with housework. Of course you cannot go
to the ball."
Really, they knew that if Cinderella were washed clean and given a new dress to wear, she would look far more beautiful that
they ever could.
So poor Cinderella had to work hard helping her ugly stepsisters prepare for the ball, but when the great night arrived,
Cinderella was left alone by the kitchen fire.
Suddenly she heard a voice asking why she looked so sad, and turning Cinderella saw a beautiful lady.
 "I am sad because I cannot go to the
ball," replied Cinderella.
"Then be sad no longer," replied the lady. "I am your fairy godmother and you shall go to the ball."
Cinderella heart jumped with delight, but then she said: "How can I go to the ball? I have no lovely dress. I am dirty with
cinders and housework. I have no carriage and no servants. How can I go to the palace?"
"Just do as I say," smiled the fairy godmother.
Then she told Cinderella to fetch a pumpkin from the garden and find four friendly mice. When she had done that, the fairy
godmother said she needed two lizards from the warm side of the garden wall and a fat old rat from the cellar.
Cinderella fetched them all.
Then, with a smile, the fairy godmother waved her magic wand. The pumpkin turned into a coach. The mice became horses. The
lizards changed into footmen and the fat rat became the coach driver.
 "Oh, how wonderful!" smiled Cinderella.
Then she glanced down at herself and saw that she was clean, and that she was wearing the loveliest ball gown she had ever
seen.
"Now you can go to the ball," smiled the fairy godmother, "but remember, you must leave before midnight. At midnight the
magic ends. Your lovely dress will turn back into rags. The coach will become pumpkin horses will turn into mice. The
footmen into lizards once more and the coach driver will be a rat."
"Oh, I will remember," promised Cinderella, "and thank you."
Looking beautiful, Cinderella arrived at the ball. Price Charming fell in love with her at once and would dance with no one
else for the rest of the evening.
Cinderella was so happy, she did not think about the fairy godmother's warning words, until the palace clock struck
midnight.
"I must go. I MUST GO!" she gasped, running from the ballroom and leaving but a glass slipper behind her on the palace
steps.
Prince Charming picked up the slipper.
"I will marry no one but the young lady to whom this slipper belongs, " he said.
The palace servants were sent all through the town announcing that Prince Charming was in love with the beautiful lady he
had met at the ball and that he wished to marry her.
"This is her glass slipper," said the servants. "Whoever this slipper fits shall marry the prince."
"Come in here. COME IN HERE!" shouted the ugly sisters, beckoning the palace servants into their home. "This slipper will
fit a lady in this house."
"One of us will force a foot into that slipper, however much it hurts," they said to each other.
However, their feet were far more big and ugly and in no way could be pushed into the delicate little shoe.
As servants were about to leave, one of them noticed Cinderella peeping in from the kitchen door.
"My instructions are that every young lady in town must try on the slipper," he said and handed that shoe to Cinderella.
Of course it fitted her perfectly. She was taken to the palace, where Prince Charming was overjoyed to see her and ordered
the preparations for their marriage to start at once.
They had the grandest wedding the town had ever seen and lived happily ever after.
And although they did not deserve it, Cinderella was kind to her stepmother and sisters, inviting them to the parties at the
palace and helping the girls find good husbands. |
