Now it came to pass that the king ordained a festival to which
all the beautiful maidens of that country were invited so that the king's son
might choose a bride from among them. When the two stepdaughters heard that
they too were invited they felt very pleased and they called Cinderella and
said,
»Comb
our hair, polish our shoes, and make our buckles fast, we are going to the
wedding feast at the king's castle.«
Cinderella, when she heard this, could not help crying for she too would have liked to go to the dance, and she begged her stepmother to allow her. »What, you Cinderella!« said she, »In all your dust 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 stepmother said, »I have strewn 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.«