Once there was a Queen. She was sitting at the window. There was snow outside in the garden-snow on the hill and in the lane¹, snow on the hunts and on the trees: all things were white with snow.

The Queen was making a coat for a little child. She said, "I want my child to be white as this cloth, white as the snow. And I shall call her Snow-white."

Some days after that the Queen had a child. The child was white as snow. The Queen called her Snow-white.

But the Queen was very ill, and after some days she died. Snow-white lived, and was a very happy and beautiful child.

One year after that, the King married another Queen. The new Queen was very beautiful; but she was not a good woman.

A wizard²（男巫） had given this Queen a glass. The glass could speak. It was on the wall in the Queen's room. Every day the queen looked in the glass to see how beautiful she was. As she looked in the glass, she asked: "Tell me, glass upon the wall, who is most beautiful of all?" And the glass spoke³ and said: "The Queen is most beautiful of all."

Years went by. Snow-white grew up and became a little girl. every day the Queen looked in the glass and said, "Tell me, glass upon the wall, who is most beautiful of all?" And the glass said, "Snow-white is most beautiful of all."

When the Queen heard this, she was very angry. She said, "Snow-white is not more beautiful than I am. There is no one who is more beautiful than I am."

Then the Queen sat on her bed and cried.

After one hour the Queen went out of her room. She called one of the servants, and said, "Take Snow-white into the forest and kill her."

The servant took Snow-white to the forest, but he did not kill her, because she was so beautiful and so good. He said, "I shall not kill you; but do not go to the King's house, because the Queen is angry and she will see you. If the Queen sees you, she will make some other man kill you. Wait here in the forest; some friends will help you." Then he went away.

Poor Snow-white sat at the foot of a tree and cried. Then she saw that night was coming. She said, "I will not cry. I will find some house where I can sleep tonight. I cannot wait here: the bears will eat me."

She went far into the forest. Then she saw a little hut⁴（小屋） . She opened the door of the hut, and went in. In the hut she saw seven little beds. There was a table, and on the table there were seven little loaves（大块烤过的食物） and seven little glasses. She ate one of the loaves. Then she said, "I want some water to drink." So she drank some water out of one of the glasses. Then she fell asleep on one of the seven little beds.

The hut was the home of seven Little Men. When it was night, the seven Little Men came to the hut. Each Little Man had a big beard, and a little blue coat. Each Little Man came into the hut, and took his little lamp. Then each Little Man sat down, and ate his little loaf, and drank his little glass of water.

But one Little Man said, "Someone has eaten my little loaf." And another Little Man said, "Someone has drunk⁵ my little glass of water." Then the seven Little Men went to bed, but one Little Man said, "Someone is sleeping on my little bed." All the seven Little Men came to look at Snow-white as she slept on the Little Men's bed. They said, "She is very beautiful."