Three weeks passed. The prince couldn’t sleep. He could not stop thinking about the beautiful girl at the ball.
He waited for her to return to the palace, but she did not return. He waited for her to send a letter, but no letters came.
Finally, in desperation, he gave the glass shoe to a trusted messenger and ordered him to visit every house in the kingdom.
“Find the girl who this shoe belongs to, and bring her to me!”
The messenger visited hundreds of houses. At every house, women claimed the glass shoe was theirs. But when they tried on the shoe, their feet were too big, or too wide, or too small.
Finally, the messenger arrived at Cinderella’s house. Cinderella’s stepmother opened the door.
“Of course! Of course! Come in!”
She led the messenger into the dining room, where the two stepsisters were waiting.
The oldest sister said “Thank God! That’s my shoe!” But when she tried the shoe, her foot was too wide.
The youngest sister said “Silly sister… It’s not your shoe, it’s my shoe!” But when she tried the shoe, her foot was too small.
The stepmother said “Get out of the way, girls, it’s not your shoe. It’s MY shoe!” and tried the shoe. But her foot was too long.
“Oh how silly!” said the stepmother. “The shoe must have shrunk in the rain…”
But the messenger was not so easily fooled. “Are there any other women in this house?” he asked.
“No one but our serving girl, and the shoe is certainly not hers… “ said the stepmother.
“Fetch her immediately. Every woman in the kingdom must try the shoe,” insisted the messenger.
When Cinderella arrived in the dining room she was wearing her usual rags, and her face was covered in dirt.
She put her dirty foot into the glass shoe and… amazing! It wasn’t too wide. It wasn’t too long. It fit perfectly!
In a quiet voice she said, “It’s my shoe.”
“Please come with me,” said the messenger. And before Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters could stop them … the messenger hurried Cinderella out the door and into a carriage.
Cinderella was taken to the palace to meet the prince. She was still wearing her dirty old dress, and her arms, legs and face were dirty. She looked at the floor because she felt so ashamed.
The prince took Cinderella’s hand.
“Miss, please look at me,” he requested kindly. And when she lifted her head and he saw her kind, green eyes, he knew that she was the girl he had fallen in love with at the ball.
They were married the next spring, and spent the rest of their lives laughing at each other’s jokes.
Couldnt
Return
