'Well, I shall wear just a simple skirt but put my coat with the golden flowers over it and, of course, there's always my diamond necklace, which is really rather special,' said the youngest. 'I shall wear my red velvet with the lace trimming,' said the eldest.

They could talk about nothing except what they were going to wear. Busy and happy, they set about choosing the dresses and hairstyles that would suit them best, and that made more work for Cinderella, who had to iron her sisters's petticoats and starch their ruffles. Our two young ladies received their invitations, for they were well connected. The king's son decided to hold a ball to which he invited all the aristocracy. Yet even in her dirty clothes, Cinderella could not help but be a hundred times more beautiful than her sisters, however magnificently they dressed themselves up. But the younger sister, who was less spiteful than the older one, changed her nickname to Cinderella. When the housework was all done, she would tuck herself away in the chimney corner to sit quietly among the cinders, the only place of privacy she could find, and so the family nicknamed her Cinderbritches. His new wife ruled him with a rod of iron. The poor girl bore everything patiently and dared not complain to her father because he would have lost his temper with her.

She slept at the top of the house, in a garret, on a thin, lumpy mattress, while her stepsisters had rooms with fitted carpets, soft beds and mirrors in which they could see themselves from head to foot. She gave her all the rough work about the house to do, washing the pots and pans, cleaning out Madame's bedroom and those of her stepsisters, too. Her new daughter was so lovable that she made her own children seem even more unpleasant, by contrast so she found the girl insufferable. The second wedding was hardly over before the stepmother showed her true colours. Her new husband's first wife had given him a daughter of his own before she died, but she was a lovely and sweet-natured girl, very like her own natural mother, who had been a kind and gentle woman. She already had two daughters of her own and her children took after her in every way. There once lived a man who married twice, and his second wife was the haughtiest and most stuck-up woman in the world.

The little glass slipper story