It was the middle of winter, when the broad flakes of snow werefalling around, that the queen of a country many thousand miles off satworking at her window. The frame of the window was made of fine blackebony, and as she sat looking out upon the snow, she pricked herfinger, and three drops of blood fell upon it. Then she gazedthoughtfully upon the red drops that sprinkled the white snow, and said,«Would that my little daughter may be as white as that snow, as red asthat blood, and as black as this ebony windowframe!» And so the littlegirl really did grow up; her skin was as white as snow, her cheeks asrosy as the blood, and her hair as black as ebony; and she was calledSnowdrop.
But this queen died; and the king soon married another wife, whobecame queen, and was very beautiful, but so vain that she could notbear to think that anyone could be handsomer than she was. Shehad a fairy looking-glass, to which she used to go, and then shewould gaze upon herself in it, and say:
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