ere must be some mistake.
But if you cannot use the comb I will let you have this pretty ribbon
instead," and she held out the poisoned ribbon. Snowwhite took it, and
after the old woman, as she thought she was, had gone away, Snowwhite
went to the mirror and tied up her hair with the piece of ribbon. But
scarcely had she done so when she fell to the ground lifeless and lay
there as if she were dead.

That evening the dwarfs came home and found Snowwhite lying on the
ground as if dead, but soon discovered the poisoned ribbon and untied
it; and almost as soon as this was done Snowwhite revived again.

Next morning the Queen went once more to the mirror on the wall, and
called out:

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?"

to which the mirror replied, without any change:

"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,
Snowwhite's the fairest thou must own."

And the Queen recognized that once again her plans had failed, and
Snowwhite was still alive. So she dressed herself once more and took
with her a poisoned apple, which was so arranged that only one half of
it was poisoned and the rest of it was left as before. And when the
Queen got to the hut of the dwarfs she tried to open the door, but
Snowwhite called out:

"You can't come in!"

"Then I'll come to the window," said the Queen.

"Ah, you are the old lady that came twice before; you have not brought
me good luck, each time something has befallen me."

But the Queen said:

"I do not know how that can be; I only brought you something for your
hair; perhaps you tied it too tight. To show you that I have no
ill-will against you I have brought you this beautiful apple."

"But my guardians," said Snowwhite, "told me that I must take nothing
more from you."

"Oh, this is nothing to wear," said the Queen, "this is something to
eat. To show you that there can be no harm in it I will take half of
it myself and you shall eat the other half."

So she cut the apple in two and gave the poisoned half to Snowwhite.
And the moment she had swallowed the first bite of it she fell down
dead. Then the Queen slunk away and went back to the palace and went
at once to her chamber and addressed the mirror on the wall:

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall,
Who is the fairest of us all?"

And this time the mirror answered, as it used to do:

"Queen, Queen, on thy throne,
The greatest beauty is thine own."

Then the Queen knew that Snowwhi