Once upon a time, there lived a widow with two daughters. One was a beautiful and diligent¹ stepdaughter, and the other was her ugly and lazy real daughter.

One day, the stepdaughter broke the mirror of her stepmother while cleaning the house. "Oh, no! What can I do?" The stepdaughter shed frightened tears thinking of the angry face of her stepmother. Then a strange sound came from the inside of the broken mirror.

"Please come in. You may come in." The stepdaughter peeped hesitantly into the mirror, at which moment the girl lost her wits in the glare² of the shining light.

"Ah, where am I?" When she came to her senses, she was standing³ in a garden filled with shining sunlight and beautiful flowers. The girl kept walking dreamily among the flowers.

After a while, pieces of bread shouted out to the girl from a hot oven. "Wow! It's hot! It's too hot. Please take us from the oven." The girl took out all the pieces of bread from the oven despite the blazing⁴ heat, and kept walking.

"My arms are painful as they hold something heavy. Please shake my arms." A tree with apples hung in thick clusters⁵ begged the girl, crying, "My apples are fully⁶ ripened⁷ and are ready to eat. Please shake my arms by all means."

The girl stopped walking and shook the apple tree. The fruit dropped down from the apple tree as if it were raining. The girl collected all the apples that fell down.

Finally, she arrived at a small inn. The girl knocked on the door carefully saying, "Knock--knock! Is there anyone here?" Suddenly, the door was flung⁸ wide open, and an old lady appeared. The girl was frightened and tried to run away.

But the old lady said, "You don't have to be afraid of me. Would you like to live with me? You only have to shake off my bedding cleanly like flying feathers. Then the feathers will become the snow which is fallen on the ground. I am Mother Holle."

The girl did the housekeeping work very hard, and the bedding was shaken off with flying feathers like snowflakes. And although the old lady treated the girl very nicely, one day the child dropped tears saying, "I want to go home. I miss my stepmother and stepsister." The girl begged the old lady saying, "Dear Grandmother, please let me go home." The old lady then said smiling at her, "All right, you have indeed worked hard until now. I will let you go home."

The old lady stood in front of the mirror holding her hands, and said, "Pretty Girl, you may find your way home after you pass through this mirror. And you can take these with you as you have worked hard." At that moment, gold and silver money and valuables were showered down into the breast of the girl from heaven. The grateful child said, "Thank you, Grandmother." Finally, she arrived back at home.

"Mother, Mother!" The stepmother was surprised to see the girl bringing in a great load of gold and silver money and valuables. The girl told her what happened, and upon hearing the story, the stepmother believed that her real daughter might have such luck as well.

The stepmother deliberately⁹ broke the mirror which was held by her real daughter. There was a sound from the mirror saying, "Please come in. You may come in." The stepmother pushed her rather ugly and lazy real daughter into the mirror. She also happened to walk among the fields like her younger sister.

Pieces of bread shouted out to her from an oven saying, "Wow! It's hot. It's too hot. Please take us out of the oven." But the girl kept walking saying, "Hum! I am busy. And I may get hurt if I touch hot pieces of bread." A crying apple tree begged her, and saying, "My arms are too painful. Please shake my arms." But the girl kept walking again saying, "It is indeed troublesome. I don't want to have any fruit like an apple."

Finally, an inn appeared. "Ah, this is the place!" The door was open, and an old lady appeared saying, "It is good to have someone to work for me. All you have to do is to shake off my bedding." The girl agreed to do so, but was tired of working after one or two days.

The girl spent every day idly without working hard to shake off the bedding. The threshing old lady was not satisfied with the lazy girl. Then she said, "My Girl, you may stop working for me and return home. Here is the compensation¹⁰ for your work."

Gladly, the girl waited for gold and silver money and valuables in front of the mirror. "Mother, Mother!" The lazy girl called to her mother. Upon seeing her daughter returned home, the mother of the girl shouted in dismay¹¹. "Oh, no!" There were all sorts of dirty insects and worms attached to the body of the lazy girl, who was forced to live with those dirty insects and worms attached to her body all her life.