Walking in procession , as was their custom , they followed her into the loft , which was filled with caskets big and little , plain and splendid . She lifted up one and looked at it , and then put it down to examine another yet more beautiful . Which should she choose , the yellow or the blue , the red or the green , the gold or the silver ? She hesitated long , and went first to one and then to another , when she heard the cats ' voices calling : ` Take the black ! take the black ! ' The words make her look round -- she had seen no black casket , but as the cats continued their cry she peered into several corners that had remained unnoticed , and at length discovered a little black box , so small and so black , that it might easily have been passed over . ` This is the casket that pleases me best , mistress , ' said the girl , carrying it into the house . And the old woman smiled and nodded , and bade her go her way . So the girl set forth , after bidding farewell to the cows and the cats and the sparrows , who all wept as they said good-bye . She walked on and on and on , till she reached the flowery meadow , and there , suddenly , something happened , she never knew what , but she was sitting on the wall of the well in her stepmother 's yard . Then she got up and entered the house . The woman and her daughter stared as if they had been turned into stone ; but at length the stepmother gasped out : ` So you are alive after all ! Well , luck was ever against me ! And where have you been this year past ? ' Then the girl told how she had taken service in the under-world , and , beside her wages , had brought home with her a little casket , which she would like to set up in her room . ` Give me the money , and take the ugly little box off to the outhouse , ' cried the woman , beside herself with rage , and the girl , quite frightened at her violence , hastened away , with her precious box clasped to her bosom . The outhouse was in a very dirty state , as no one had been near it since the girl had fallen down the well ; but she scrubbed and swept till everything was clean again , and then she placed the little casket on a small shelf in the corner . ` Now I may open it , ' she said to herself ; and unlocking it with the key which hung to its handle , she raised the lid , but started back as she did so , almost blinded by the light that burst upon her . No one would ever have guessed that that little black box could have held such a quantity of beautiful things ! Rings , crowns , girdles , necklaces -- all made of wonderful stones ; and they shone with such brilliance that not only the stepmother and her daughter but all the people round came running to see if the house was on fire .
Of course the woman felt quite ill with greed and envy , and she would have certainly taken all the jewels for herself had she not feared the wrath of the neighbours , who loved her stepdaughter XXXXX much as they hated her .
as at beside by down in near that till with