` Now I shall never come again , ' she said , and then she turned to go . But the two men who were holding the King by the arms seized his hands and forced a knife into his grasp , and then made him cut her little finger just enough to make it bleed . Thus the true bride was freed . The King then awoke , and she told him all that had taken place , and how her step-mother and step-sister had betrayed her . Then the brother was at once taken out of the snake-pit -- the snakes had never touched him -- and the step-mother and step-sister were flung down into it instead of him . No one can tell how delighted the King was to get rid of that hideous Bushy Bride , and get a Queen who was bright and beautiful as day itself . And now the real wedding was held , and held in such a way that it was heard of and spoken about all over seven kingdoms . The King and his bride drove to church , and Little Snow was in the carriage too . When the blessing was given they went home again , and after that I saw no more of them . -LRB- 28 -RRB- -LRB- 28 -RRB- From J. Moe . SNOWDROP ONCE upon a time , in the middle of winter when the snow-flakes were falling like feathers on the earth , a Queen sat at a window framed in black ebony and sewed . And as she sewed and gazed out to the white landscape , she pricked her finger with the needle , and three drops of blood fell on the snow outside , and because the red showed out so well against the white she thought to herself : ` Oh ! what would n't I give to have a child as white as snow , as red as blood , and as black as ebony ! ' And her wish was granted , for not long after a little daughter was born to her , with a skin as white as snow , lips and cheeks as red as blood , and hair as black as ebony . They called her Snowdrop , and not long after her birth the Queen died . After a year the King married again . His new wife was a beautiful woman , but so proud and overbearing that she could n't stand any rival to her beauty . She possessed a magic mirror , and when she used to stand before it gazing at her own reflection and ask : ` Mirror , mirror , hanging there , Who in all the land 's most fair ? ' it always replied : ` You are most fair , my Lady Queen , None fairer in the land , I ween . ' Then she was quite happy , for she knew the mirror always spoke the truth .
But Snowdrop was growing prettier and prettier every day , and when she was seven years old she was as beautiful XXXXX she could be , and fairer even than the Queen herself .
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