Once upon a time in the middle of winter, when the flakes of snow were falling like feathers from the sky, a queen sat at a window sewing, and the frame of the window was made of black ebony. And whilst she was sewing and looking out of the window at the snow, she pricked her finger with the needle, and three drops of blood fell upon the snow. And the red looked pretty upon the white snow, and she thought to herself, ""Would that I had a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame.""

Soon after that, she had a little daughter who was as white as snow and as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony, and she was therefore called Snow White. And when the child was born, the queen died.

After a year had passed, the king took to himself another wife. She was a beautiful woman but proud and haughty, and she could not bear that anyone else should surpass her in beauty. She had a wonderful looking-glass, and when she stood in front of it and look