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Updated: May 31, 2025
The stepmother also added her threats to those of Helen, and with vigorous blows they pushed Marouckla outside and shut the door upon her. The weeping girl made her way to the mountain. The snow lay deep, and there was no trace of any human being. Long she wandered hither and thither, and lost herself in the wood. She was hungry, and shivered with cold, and prayed to die.
The girl was delighted and shook the tree. First one apple fell, then another. "That is enough," said Zaré, "hurry home." Thanking the months, she returned joyfully. Helen marvelled and the stepmother wondered at seeing the fruit. "Where did you gather them?" asked the step-sister. "There are more on the mountain top," answered Marouckla.
Day after day Marouckla worked, and prayed, and waited, but neither stepmother nor sister returned. They had been frozen to death on the mountain. The inheritance of a small house, a field, and a cow fell to Marouckla. In course of time an honest farmer came to share them with her, and their lives were happy and peaceful. It was bitterly cold.
Helen gave a few to her mother and ate the rest herself; not one did she offer to her stepsister. Being tired of strawberries, on the third day she took a fancy for some fresh red apples. "Run, Marouckla," said she, "and fetch me fresh red apples from the mountain." "Apples in winter, sister? why, the trees have neither leaves nor fruit."
Helen, meanwhile, did nothing but dress herself in her best clothes and go to one amusement after another. But Marouckla never complained; she bore the scoldings and bad temper of mother and sister with a smile on her lips, and the patience of a lamb. But this angelic behavior did not soften them.
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