ger sister behaves kindly to a
poor old woman, who, being a fairy, turns all her words into flowers and
diamonds. The wicked elder sister treats the fairy with despite: _her_
words become toads and serpents, and the younger marries a king's son.

The preference shown to the youngest child is discussed in the note on
Cinderella. M. Deulin asks whether _Toads and Pearls_ is connected with
the legend of Latona (Leto) and the peasants whom she changed into
frogs, for refusing to allow her to drink[67]. Latona really wished to
bathe her children, and the two narratives have probably no connection,
though rudeness is punished in both. Nor is there a closer connection
with the tales in which tears (like the tears of Wainamoinen in the
_Kalewala_) change into pearls. It is an obvious criticism that the
elder girl should have met the fairy first; she was not likely to behave
so rudely when she knew that politeness would be rewarded. The natural
order of events occurs in Grimm's _Golden Goose_ (64), where the eldest
and the second son refuse to let the old man taste their cake and wine.
Here, as in a tale brought by M. Deulin from French Flanders, the polite
youngest son, by virtue of a Golden Goose, makes a very serious princess
laugh, and wins her for his wife. Turning on a similar moral conception
Grimm's _Mother Holle_ (24) is infinitely better than _Les Fees_. The
younger daughter drops her shuttle down a well; she is sent after it,
and reaches a land where apples speak and say, 'Shake us, we are all
ripe.' She does all she is asked to do, and makes Mother Holle's
feather-bed so well that the feathers (snow-flakes) fly about the world.
She goes home covered with golden wages, and her elder sister follows
her, but not her example. She insults the apples, is lazy at Mother
Holle's, and is sent home covered with pitch. Grimm gives many variants.
Mlle. L'Heritier amplifies the tale in her _Bigarrures_ (1696). The
story begins to be more exciting, when it is combined, as commonly
happens, with that of the substituted bride. It is odd enough that the
Kaffirs have the incident of the good and bad girl, the bad girl laughs
at the trees, as in Grimm's she mocks the apples (Theal, _Kaffir
Folklore_, p. 49). This tale (in which there is no miracle of uttering
toads or pearls) diverges into that of the _Snake Husband_, a rude
_Beauty and the Beast_. The Zulus again have the story of the
substituted bride ('Ukcombekcantsini,' Callaway's _