Now the queen, having eaten Snow-White's heart, as she supposed, felt quite sure that now she was the first and fairest.  So she came to her mirror, and said,

        »Looking-glass, looking-glass on the wall,
        Who is fairest of us all?«

And the glass answered,

        »O Queen, thou art fairest of all I see,
        But over the hills, where the seven dwarfs dwell,
        Snow-White is still alive and well,
        And none is so fair as she.«

Then she got a shock, for the glass always spoke the truth and she knew that the huntsman must have deceived her and that Snow-White must still be living.  »Snow-White shall die,«  she cried,  »though it should cost me my own life!«  And then she went to a secret chamber and there she made a poisonous apple.  It was beautiful to look upon, being white with a red cheek, so that any one who should see it must long for it, but whoever ate even a little bit of it must die.

When the apple was ready she painted her face and clothed herself like a peasant woman and went across the seven mountains to where the seven dwarfs lived.  And when she knocked at the door Snow-White put her head out of the window and said,  »I dare not let anybody in;  the seven dwarfs told me not.«—»All right,«  answered the woman;  »I can easily get rid of my apples elsewhere.  There, I will give you one.«  Snow-White longed for the beautiful apple and she could no longer refrain.  But no sooner had she taken a morsel of it into her mouth than the poison worked and she fell to the earth as dead.

And when the queen went home and asked the looking-glass,

        »Looking-glass, looking-glass on the wall,
        Who is fairest of us all?«

at last it answered,

        »Queen, you are the fairest now of all.«

Then her envious heart had peace.

 

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