f. When they passed by the hazel bush
the two pigeons sat there and cried,

"There they go, there they go!
There is blood on her shoe;
The shoe is too small,
--Not the right bride at all!"

Then the prince looked at her foot, and saw how the blood was flowing
from the shoe, and staining the white stocking. And he turned his horse
round and brought the false bride home again.

"This is not the right one," said he, "have you no other daughter?"

"No," said the man, "only my dead wife left behind her a little stunted
Aschenputtel; it is impossible that she can be the bride." But the
King's son ordered her to be sent for, but the mother said,

"Oh no! she is much too dirty, I could not let her be seen."

But he would have her fetched, and so Aschenputtel had to appear.

First she washed her face and hands quite clean, and went in and
curtseyed to the prince, who held out to her the golden shoe. Then she
sat down on a stool, drew her foot out of the heavy wooden shoe, and
slipped it into the golden one, which fitted it perfectly. And when she
stood up, and the prince looked in her face, he knew again the beautiful
maiden that had danced with him, and he cried,

"This is the right bride!"

The step-mother and the two sisters were thunderstruck, and grew pale
with anger; but he put Aschenputtel before him on his horse and rode
off. And as they passed the hazel bush, the two white pigeons cried,

"There they go, there they go!
No blood on her shoe;
The shoe's not too small,
The right bride is she after all."

And when they had thus cried, they came flying after and perched on
Aschenputtel's shoulders, one on the right, the other on the left, and
so remained.

And when her wedding with the prince was appointed to be held the false
sisters came, hoping to curry favour, and to take part in the
festivities. So as the bridal procession went to the church, the eldest
walked on the right side and the younger on the left, and the pigeons
picked out an eye of each of them. And as they returned the elder was on
the left side and the younger on the right, and the pigeons picked out
the other eye of each of them. And so they were condemned to go blind
for the rest of their days because of their wickedness and falsehood.

The MOUSE, the BIRD, and the SAUSAGE

ONCE on a time, a mouse and a bird and a sausage lived and kept house
together in perfect peace among themselves, and in grea