[Illustration]
The Queen was very much grieved at this, and felt still more troubled
when she beheld her other daughter, for the second Princess was
extremely ugly.
"Do not take it too much to heart, madam," remarked the fairy, "for
this second daughter will be so clever that it will scarcely be
noticed that she is not beautiful."
"Well, if it must be so, it must," remarked the Queen, "but I should
certainly have liked the elder one, who is beautiful, to be just a
little bit clever too."
"I can do nothing as to her mind, madam," replied the fairy, "but for
her beauty I can, and as there is nothing I would not do to please
you, I will give her a gift so that she can make the one who wins her
heart beautiful too."
As the Princesses grew up, their gifts likewise grew with them, so
that everybody spoke about the beauty of the one and the cleverness
of the other; but also their defects grew, so that it could not but
be noticed that the younger was daily uglier, and the elder day by
day became more stupid, until she either said nothing in reply to a
question, or something quite silly, and so clumsy was she that she
could not arrange four china ornaments on the chimney piece without
breaking one, or drink a glass of water without spilling half of it on
her frock.
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