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TOADS AND DIAMONDS
Adapted from Perrault
Once upon a time a woodcutter found a little baby
girl in the forest. At night he took her home to live
with his wife and his own little daughter who was a
year or so older than the foster child.
As the little one grew up, the mother and her own
daughter were both so continually thinking of them-
selves, so continually wanting to be served with the
best of everything and to do no work at all, that they
made it hard indeed for anyone to live with them.
The younger girl, however, was good and sweet of
temper, and one of the most beautiful creatures ever
seen. No matter how hard the Mother and older
daughter made her work, nor how little they gave her
in return, she was always kind, patient, and obedient.
Among other things, it was her duty to go twice
every day to draw water more than a mile and a half
from the house, and bring home a pitcher full of it.
One morning as she stood by the fountain, there came
to her a poor woman, who begged her for a drink.
“Oh, yes, I will give you a drink with all my heart.
Goody,” said the pretty child. Rinsing the pitcher at
once, she took some of the clearest water from the
fountain, and gave it to the stranger, holding up the
pitcher all the while, that she might drink the more easily.
Then the good woman said to her:
“You are so good and courteous, that I cannot help
giving you a gift.” For this was a fairy who had
taken the form of a poor country-woman in order to
learn just how good and kind the young girl really was.
**I will give you for a gift,” continued the fairy, *’that
at every word you speak, there shall come out of your
mouth either a flower or a jewel.”
When the pretty girl returned home, the mother
began to scold her for staying so long at the fountain.
‘I beg your pardon, mamma,” she answered, ”but
I could not make more haste.”
As she spoke these words, there came out of her
mouth two roses, two pearls, and two large diamonds.
*’What is this I see?” cried the woman in great
astonishment. ‘Tearls and diamonds drop out of the
girl’s mouth! How happened this, my child?”
The girl told her the whole story frankly, not with-
out dropping great numbers of diamonds.
“Truly” cried the mother, “I must send my own
dear child thither. Fanny, look at what comes out
of your sister’s mouth when she speaks. Would you
not be glad, dear, to have the same gift? You have
only to go and draw water out of the fountain, and
when a poor woman asks you for a drink, to give it
to her very politely.”
“I would like to see myself going to the fountain to
draw water,” said this proud, ill-natured creature, for
she thought herself too fine to do work of that sort.
“I insist you shall go,” said the mother, who was
very fond of her own daughter and wanted her to have
the best of everything. ”Go instantly.”
So the girl was obliged to do as she was bid, but
she grumbled all the way, and she took with her the
best silver tankard in the house, instead of the plainer
one her sister was accustomed to use.
No sooner had she reached the fountain than she
saw coming out of the wood a magnificently dressed
lady who came to her and asked for a drink. This
was the same fairy who had appeared to her sister,
but she had purposely taken upon herself another
form, so the older girl should not know her. Never
dreaming that this very fine lady was the same poor
woman who had in her power the wonderful gift, the
girl answered rudely:
“Oho! I suppose you think I came hither just to
serve you with water! I suppose I carried this silver
tankard all along the way through the forest purely
to please your ladyship! If you want a drink, get it
yourself.*’
“You are scarcely polite,” answered the fairy very
calmly. “Well then, since you answer me in such away,
I give you for a gift that at every word you speak there
shall come out of your mouth either a toad or a snake.”
The girl’s mother had been watching eagerly for her
return, and as soon as she saw her coming through
the woods, she called out, ‘Well, my daughter?”
“Well, mother!” answered the girl, but at the first
words she spoke, out of her mouth fell a toad and a
snake.
“Oh, mercy!” cried the mother. “What is this I see?
No jewels, but toads and snakes!”
Yet so foolish was she in her fondness for her own
child, that she never dreamed of questioning whether
the girl had been at fault for what had happened
to her. Indeed she began at once to think who else
could have been to blame.
“I know” she cried, running toward the kitchen
where her foster daughter was at work. “It is you
who are to blame for this — you who brought all this
misery on your sister. But you shall pay for it. Out
of this house you go. At once and forever.”
Then she drove the young girl out of the house
and into the forest. But as the pretty creature sat
on a fallen log alone and weeping, who should come by
but a King’s son. Seeing her so sad and beautiful,
he asked her what she did there alone.
“Alas; sir,” she cried, “my mother has turned me
out of doors.”
The King’s son who saw five or six pearls and as
many diamonds drop out of her mouth as she spoke,
was astounded and desired her to tell him all that
had happened. Perceiving as she told her story that
she was as beautiful in heart as in face, the King’s
son fell in love with her on the spot. Asking her
leave, he conducted her to the palace of the King,
his father, and there married her.
As for the sister, snakes and toads kept falling
from her mouth, till she became so hateful to all that
her own mother turned her out of doors. She wandered
off into the forest and was never heard of again.
