ed and besought her to marry them and share their
fortunes. Beauty was grateful, but she told them that she could not
leave her father in his sorrow; she must go with him to console him and
work for him. The poor girl was very sorry to lose her fortune, because
she could not do so much good without it; but she knew that her place
was ordered for her, and that she might be quite as happy poor as rich.

Very soon the merchant's family had to leave their noble mansion, to
sell off all their costly furniture, and to go into the country, where
the father and his sons got work; the former as a bailiff, the latter
as farm laborers. And now Beauty had to think and work for all.

She rose at four o'clock every morning. She cleaned the house; prepared
the breakfast; spread it neatly, and decked the board with the sweetest
flowers. Then she cooked the dinner, and when evening came and brought
the laborers home, Beauty had always a cheerful welcome for them, a
clean home, and a savory supper. During the hours of the afternoon she
used to read and keep up her knowledge of languages; and all the time
she worked she sang like a bird. Her taste made their poor home look
nice, even elegant.

She was happy in doing her duty. Her early rising revealed to her a
thousand beauties in nature of which she had never before dreamed.

Beauty acknowledged to herself that sunrise was finer than any picture
she had ever seen; that no perfumes equalled those of the flowers; that
no opera gave her so much enjoyment as the song of the lark and the
serenade of the nightingale.

Her sleep was as happy and peaceful as that of a child; her awakening,
cheerful, contented, and blest by heaven.

Meantime her sisters grew peevish, cross, and miserable. They would not
work, and as they had nothing else to amuse them, the days dragged
along, and seemed as if they would never end. They did nothing but
regret the past and bewail the present. As they had no one to admire
them, they did not care how they looked, and were as dirty and
neglected in appearance as Beauty was neat and fresh and charming.

Perhaps they had some consciousness of the contrast between her and
themselves, for they disliked the poor girl more than ever, and were
always mocking her, and jesting about her wonderful fitness for being
a servant.

"It is quite plain," they would say, "that you are just where you ought
to be: We are ladies; but you are a low-minded girl, who have found
your