s of a beautiful mouse-colored
dapple-gray. Being at a loss for a coachman, "I will go and see," said
Cinderella, "if there be never a rat in the rat-trap, that we may make a
coachman of him."

"Thou art in the right," replied her godmother; "go and look."

Cinderella brought the trap to her, and in it there were three huge
rats. The fairy made choice of one of the three, which had the largest
beard, and, having touched him with her wand, he was turned into a fat,
jolly coachman, who had the smartest whiskers that eyes ever beheld.

After that her godmother said to her, "Go again into the garden and you
will find six lizards behind the watering pot; bring them to me." She
had no sooner done so, than the fairy turned them into six footmen, who
skipped up immediately behind the coach, with their liveries all
bedecked with gold and silver, and clung as close behind each other as
if they had done nothing else their whole lives. The fairy then said to
Cinderella, "Well, you see here an equipage fit to go to the ball with.
Are you not pleased with it?"

"Oh, yes," cried she, "but must I go thither as I am, in these filthy
rags?" Her godmother only just touched her with her wand, and at the
same instant her clothes were turned into cloth of gold and silver, all
beset with jewels. This done, she gave her a pair of glass slippers, the
prettiest in the whole world.

Being thus decked out, she got up into her coach; but her godmother,
above all things, commanded her not to stay till after midnight, telling
her that if she stayed at the ball one moment longer, her coach would be
a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen
lizards, and her clothes just as they were before.

She promised her godmother she would not fail of leaving the ball before
midnight; and then away she drives, scarce able to contain herself for
joy. The king's son, who was told that a great princess, whom nobody
knew, was come, ran out to receive her. He gave her his hand as she
alighted from the coach, and led her into the hall among all the
company. There was immediately a profound silence. They left off
dancing, and the violins ceased to play, so attentive was every one to
contemplate the singular beauties of this unknown new-comer. Nothing was
then heard but a confused noise of, "Ha! how handsome she is! Ha! how
handsome she is!" The king himself, old as he was, could not help ogling
her and telling the queen softly that it was a