Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/317

 ‘Well, mother?’ answered the pert hussey, throwing out of her mouth two vipers and two toads.

‘Oh! mercy,’ cried the mother; ‘what is it I see? Oh! it is that wretch her sister who has occasioned all this; but she shall pay for it’; and immediately she ran to beat her. The poor child fled away from her, and went to hide herself in the forest, not far from thence.

The King’s son, then on his return from hunting, met her, and seeing her so very pretty, asked her what she did there alone and why she cried.

‘Alas! sir, my mamma has turned me out of doors.’

The King’s son, who saw five or six pearls and as many diamonds come out of her mouth, desired her to tell him how that happened. She hereupon told him the whole story; and so the King’s son fell in love with her, and, considering with himself that such a gift was worth more than any marriage portion, conducted her to the palace of the King his father, and there married her.

As for her sister, she made herself so much hated that her own mother turned her off; and the miserable wretch, having wandered about a good while without finding anybody to take her in, went to a corner of the wood, and there died.