and dirt, you want to go to the festival! you that have no dress and no shoes! you want to dance!"
But as she persisted in asking, at last the step-mother said,
"I have strewed a dish-full of lentils in the ashes, and if you can pick them all up again in two hours you may go with us."
Then the maiden went to the back-door that led into the garden, and called out,
"O gentle doves, O turtle-doves,
And all the birds that be,
The lentils that in ashes lie
Come and pick up for me!
The good must be put in the dish,
The bad you may eat if you wish."
Then there came to the kitchen-window two white doves, and after them some turtle-doves, and at last a crowd of all the birds under heaven, chirping and fluttering, and they alighted among the ashes; and the doves nodded with their heads, and began to pick, peck, pick, peck, and then all the others began to pick, peck, pick, peck, and put all the good grains into the dish. Before an hour was over all was done, and they flew away. Then the maiden brought the dish to her step-mother, feeling joyful, and thinking that now she should go to the feast; but the step-mother said,
"No, Aschenputtel, you have no proper clothes, and you do not know how to dance, and you would be laughed at!"
And when Aschenputtel cried for disappointment, she added,
"If you can pick two dishes full of lentils out of the ashes, nice and clean, you shall go with us," thinking to herself, "for that is not possible." When she had strewed two dishes full of lentils among the ashes the maiden went through the back-door into the garden, and cried,
"O gentle doves, O turtle-doves,
And all the birds that be,
The lentils that in ashes lie
Come and pick up for me!
The good must be put in the dish,
The bad you may eat if you wish."
