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Title: Grimm's Fairy Tales: Mother Holle
Date of first publication: 1930
Author: Jacob Grimm (1785-1863)
Author: Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859)
Illustrator: Noel Pocock (1880-1955)
Date first posted: September 21 2012
Date last updated: September 21 2012
Faded Page eBook #20120927

This eBook was produced by: David Edwards, Delphine Lettau
& the online Distributed Proofreaders Canada team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net

(This file was produced from images generously made available by
The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)




Mother Holle


A widow had two daughters; one of them was very pretty and thrifty, but
the other was ugly and idle.

Odd as you may think it, she loved the ugly and idle one much the best,
and the other was made to do all the work, and was in short quite the
drudge of the whole house. Every day she had to sit on a bench by a well
on the side of the high-road before the house, and spin so much that her
fingers were quite sore, and at length the blood would come. Now it
happened that once when her fingers had bled and the spindle was all
bloody, she dipt it into the well, and meant to wash it, but unluckily
it fell from her hand and dropt in. Then she ran crying to her mother,
and told her what had happened; but she scolded her sharply, and said,
"If you have been so silly as to let the spindle fall in, you must get
it out again as well as you can." So the poor little girl went back to
the well, and knew not how to begin, but in her sorrow threw herself
into the water, and sank down to the bottom senseless. In a short time
she seemed to awake as from a trance, and came to herself again; and
when she opened her eyes and looked around, she saw she was in a
beautiful meadow, where the sun shone brightly, the birds sang sweetly
on the boughs, and thousands of flowers sprang beneath her feet.

Then she rose up, and walked along this delightful meadow, and came to
a pretty cottage by the side of a wood; and when she went in she saw an
oven full of new bread baking, and the bread said, "Pull me out! pull me
out! or I shall be burnt, for I am quite done enough." So she stepped
up quickly and took it all out. Then she went on further, and came to
a tree that was full of fine rosy-cheeked apples, and it said to her,
"Shake me! shake me! we are all quite ripe!" So she shook the tree, and
the apples fell down like a shower, until there were no more upon the
tree. Then she went on again, and at length came to a small cottage
where an old woman was sitting at the door: the little girl would have
run away, but the old woman called out after her, "Don't be frightened,
my dear child! stay with me, I should like to have you for my little
maid, and if you do all the work in the house neatly you shall fare
well; but take care to make my bed nicely, and shake it every morning
out at the door, so that the feathers may fly, for then the good people
below say it snows.--I am Mother Holle."

As the old woman spoke so kindly to her, the girl was willing to do as
she said; so she went into her employ, and took care to do everything to
please her, and always shook the bed well, so that she led a very quiet
life with her, and every day had good meat both boiled and roast to eat
for her dinner.

But when she had been some time with the old lady, she became sorrowful,
and although she was much better off here than at home, still she had
a longing towards it, and at length said to her mistress, "I used to
grieve at my troubles at home, but if they were all to come again, and
I were sure of faring ever so well here, I could not stay any longer."
"You are right," said her mistress; "you shall do as you like; and
as you have worked for me so faithfully, I will myself show you the
way back again." Then she took her by the hand and led her behind her
cottage, and opened a door, and as the girl stood underneath there
fell a heavy shower of gold, so that she held out her apron and caught a
great deal of it. And the fairy put a shining golden dress over her, and
said, "All this you shall have because you have behaved so well;" and
she gave her back the spindle too which had fallen into the well, and
led her out by another door. When it shut behind her, she found herself
not far from her mother's house; and as she went into the court-yard the
cock sat upon the well-head and clapt his wings and cried out,

  "Cock a-doodle-doo!
   Our golden lady's come home again."

Then she went into the house, and as she was so rich she was welcomed
home. When her mother heard how she got these riches, she wanted to have
the same luck for her ugly and idle daughter, so she too was told to sit
by the well and spin. That her spindle might be bloody, she pricked her
fingers with it, and when that would not do she thrust her hand into a
thorn-bush. Then she threw it into the well and sprang in herself after
it. Like her sister, she came to a beautiful meadow, and followed the
same path. When she came to the oven in the cottage, the bread called
out as before, "Take me out! take me out! or I shall burn, I am quite
done enough." But the lazy girl said, "A pretty story, indeed! just as
if I should dirty myself for you!" and went on her way. She soon came to
the apple-tree that cried, "Shake me! shake me! for my apples are quite
ripe!" but she answered, "I will take care how I do that, for one of you
might fall upon my head;" so she went on. At length she came to Mother
Holle's house, and readily agreed to be her maid. The first day she
behaved herself very well, and did what her mistress told her; for she
thought of the gold she would give her; but the second day she began to
be lazy, and the third still more so, for she would not get up in the
morning early enough, and when she did she made the bed very badly,
and did not shake it so that the feathers would fly out. Mother Holle
was soon tired of her, and turned her off; but the lazy girl was quite
pleased at that, and thought to herself, "Now the golden rain will
come." Then the fairy took her to the same door; but when she stood
under it, instead of gold a great kettle full of dirty pitch came
showering upon her. "That is your wages," said Mother Holle as she shut
the door upon her. So she went home quite black with the pitch, and as
she came near her mother's house the cock sat upon the well, and clapt
his wings, and cried out--

  "Cock a-doodle-doo!
   Our dirty slut's come home again!"


[The end of _Grimm's Fairy Tales: Mother Holle_ by The Brothers Grimm]