ONE SNOWY DAY a queen sat sewing and pricked her finger. As the crimson blood dripped upon the snow she longed for a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony. Soon after giving birth to a daughter who fulfilled all of these requirements, she died.

When the baby Snow White was one year old, her father married again. The new queen was even more beautiful than the old one, but proud and vain . She spent many hours gazing into a magic mirror and often asked it:

"Mirror, mirror on the wall, whose the fairest one of all?"

Knowing that the mirror never lied, her vanity was satisfied when it replied:

"You, my queen are fairest of all"

But as years passed Snow white grew to be beautiful too. By her seventh birthday she was even more lovely than her stepmother and in answer to the queen's usual question the honest mirror had to say: