"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the
loveliest lady in the land?" The reply was
always; "You are, your Majesty," until the
dreadful day when she heard it say,
"Snow White is the loveliest in the land."
The stepmother was furious and, wild with
jealousy, began plotting to get rid of her
rival. Calling one of her trusty servants,
she bribed him with a rich reward to take
Snow White intc the forest, far away from
the Castle. Then, unseen, he was to put her
to death. The greedy servant, attracted to
the reward, agreed to do this deed, and he
led the innocent little girl away. However,
when they came to the fatal spot, the man's
courage failed him and, leaving Snow White
sitting beside a tree, he mumbled an excuse
and ran off. Snow White was all alone in the
forest.

Night came, but the servant did not
return. Snow White, alone in the dark forest,
began to cry bitterly. She thought she could
feel terrible eyes spying on her, and she
heard strange sounds and rustlings that made
her heart thump. At last, overcome by
tiredness, she fell asleep curled under a tree.

Snow White slept fitfully, wakening from
time to time with a start and staring into the
darkness round her. Several times, she thought
she felt something, or somebody touch her as
she slept.

At last, dawn woke the forest to the song
of the birds, and Snow White too, awoke. A
whole world was stirring to life and the
little girl was glad to see how silly her
fears had been. However, the thick trees
were like a wall round her, and as she tried
to find out where she was, she came upon a
path. She walked along it, hopefully. On
she walked till she came to a clearing. There
stood a strange cottage, with a tiny door,
tiny windows and a tiny chimney pot.
Everything about the cottage was much tinier
than it ought to be. Snow White pushed the
door open.

"l wonder who lives here?" she said to
herself, peeping round the kitchen. "What
tiny plates! And spoons! There must be seven
of them, the table's laid for seven people."
Upstairs was a bedroom with seven neat little
beds. Going back to the kitchen, Snow White
had an idea.

"I'll make them something to eat. When
they come home, they'll be glad to find a meal
ready." Towards dusk, seven tiny men marched
homewards singing. But when they opened the
door, to their surprise they found a bowl of
hot steaming soup on the table, and the whole
house spick and span. Upstairs was Snow White,
fast asleep on one of the beds. The chief
dwarf prodded her gently.

"Who are you?" he asked. Snow White told
them her sad story, and tears sprang to the
dwarfs' eyes. Then one of them said, as he
noisily blew his nose:

"Stay here with us!"

"Hooray! Hooray!" they cheered, dancing
joyfully round the little girl. The dwarfs
said to Snow White:

"You can live here and tend to the house
while we're down the mine. Don't worry about
your stepmother leaving you in the forest. We
love you and we'll take care of you!"
Snow White gratefully accepted their
hospitality, and next morning the dwarfs set
off for work. But they warned Snow White not
to open the door to strangers.

Meanwhile, the servant had returned to
the castle, with the heart of a roe deer.
He gave it to the cruel stepmother, telling
her it belonged to Snow White, so that he
could claim the reward. Highly pleased, the
stepmother turned again to the magic mirror.
But her hopes were dashed, for the mirror
replied:

"The loveliest in the land is still Snow White,
who lives in the seven dwarfs' cottage, down
in the forest." The stepmother was beside
herself with rage.

"She must die! She must die!" she screamed.

Disguising herself as an old peasant woman,
she put a poisoned apple with the others in
her basket. Then, taking the quickest way
into the forest, she crossed the swamp at
the edge of the trees. She reached the bank
unseen, just as Snow White stood waving
goodbye to the seven dwarfs on their way to
the mine.

Snow White was in the kitchen when she
heard the sound at the door: KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Who's there?" she called suspiciously,
remembering the dwarfs advice. "I'm an old
peasant woman selling apples," came the reply.
"I don't need any apples, thank you," she
replied. "But they are beautiful apples and
ever so juicy!" said the velvety voice
from outside the door.

"I'm not supposed to open the door to
anyone," said the little girl, who was
reluctant to disobey her friends.

"And quite right too! Good girl! If you
promised not to open up to strangers, then
of course you can't buy. You are a good girl
indeed!" Then the old woman went on.

"And as a reward for being good, I'm
going to make you a gift of one of my apples!"
Without a further thought, Snow White opened
the door just a tiny crack, to take the apple.

"There! Now isn't that a nice apple?"
Snow White bit into the fruit, and as she
did, fell to the ground in a faint: the
effect of the terrible poison left her
lifeless instantaneously.

Now chuckling evilly, the wicked
stepmother hurried off. But as she ran back
across the swamp, she tripped and fell into
the quicksand. No one heard her cries for
help, and she disappeared without a trace.

Meanwhile, the dwarfs came out of the
mine to find the sky had grown dark and
stormy. Loud thunder echoed through the
valleys and streaks of lightning ripped the sky.
Worried about Snow White they ran as quickly
as they could down the mountain to the cottage.

There they found Snow White, lying still
and lifeless, the poisoned apple by her side.
They did their best to bring her around, but
it was no use.

They wept and wept for a long time. Then
they laid her on a bed of rose petals, carried
her into the forest and put her in a crystal
coffin.

Each day they laid a flower there.

Then one evening, they discovered a
strange young man admiring Snow White's
lovely face through the glass. After listening
to the story, the Prince (for he was a prince!)
made a suggestion.

"If you allow me to take her to the Castle,
I'll call in famous doctors to waken her from
this peculiar sleep. She's so lovely . . . I'd
love to kiss her. . . !"

He did, and as though by magic, the
Prince's kiss broke the spell. To everyone's
astonishment, Snow White opened her eyes.
She had amazingly come back to life! Now in
love, the Prince asked Snow White to marry
him, and the dwarfs reluctantly had to say
good bye to Snow White.