d; but the sweet tempered girl on the contrary,
did every thing she could think of to make them look well. The sisters
had scarcely eaten any thing for two days, so great was their joy as the
happy day drew near. More than a dozen laces were broken in endeavouring
to give them a fine slender shape, and they were always before the
looking glass. At length the much wished for moment arrived; the proud
misses stepped into a beautiful carriage, and, followed by servants in
rich liveries, drove towards the palace. Cinderella followed them with
her eyes as far as she could; and when they were out of sight, she sat
down in a corner and began to cry. Her godmother, who saw her in tears,
asked her what ailed her. "I wish----I w-i-s-h--" sobbed poor
Cinderella, without being able to say another word. The godmother, who
was a fairy, said to her, "You wish to go to the ball, Cinderella, is
not this the truth?" "Alas! yes," replied the poor child, sobbing still
more than before. "Well, well, be a good girl," said the godmother, "and
you shall go." She then led Cinderella to her bedchamber, and said to
her: "Run into the garden and bring me a pumpkin." Cinderella flew like
lightning, and brought the finest she could lay hold of. Her godmother
scooped out the inside, leaving nothing but the rind; she then struck it
with her wand, and the pumpkin instantly became a fine coach gilded all
over with gold. She then looked into her mouse-trap, where she found six
mice all alive and brisk. She told Cinderella to lift up the door of the
trap very gently; and as the mice passed out, she touched them one by
one with her wand, and each immediately became a beautiful horse of a
fine dapple gray mouse colour. "Here, my child," said the godmother, "is
a coach and horses too, as handsome as your sisters', but what shall we
do for a postillion?" "I will run," replied Cinderella, "and see if
there be not a rat in the trap. If I find one, he will do very well for
a postillion." "Well thought of, my child," said her godmother; "make
what haste you can."

Cinderella brought the rat trap, which, to her great joy, contained
three of the largest rats ever seen. The fairy chose the one which had
the longest beard; and touching him with her wand, he was instantly
turned into a handsome postillion, with the finest pair of whiskers
imaginable. She next said to Cinderella: "Go again into the garden, and
you will find six lizards behind the watering-pot; bring the