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"Real Heinzelmen and no mistake," thought Hansi delightedly, "they can help me, if anyone can." She counted them, they were seven in number, like Snowdrop's dwarfs. They made quite a noise as they marched up in order, whistling a merry tune. When they saw Hansi, they took off their red caps, and their white hair flew about them like a mist, till Hansi could hardly see them any more.
She made the cook dress them with salt, and then the wicked woman ate them, and thought she had eaten Snowdrop's lungs and liver. The poor child was now all alone in the great forest, and she felt frightened as she looked at all the leafy trees, and knew not what to do.
Then they put the coffin on the top of the mountain, and one of the Dwarfs always remained beside it and kept watch over it. And the very birds of the air came and bewailed Snowdrop's death, first an owl, and then a raven, and last of all a little dove.
A further reason for the snowdrop's association with the Virgin originated in the custom of removing her image from the altar on the day of the Purification, and strewing over the vacant place with these emblems of purity. The little pink is "lady's cushion," and the campanula is her looking-glass.
Snowdrop opened the door and bought the pretty lace. "Child," said the old woman, "you are a sight, let me lace you properly for once." Snowdrop placed herself before the old woman, who laced her so quickly and so tightly that she took away Snowdrop's breath and she fell down as though dead.
At last she could endure Snowdrop's presence no longer, and, calling a huntsman to her, she said: 'Take the child out into the wood, and never let me see her face again. You must kill her, and bring me back her lungs and liver, that I may know for certain she is dead.
"No; and it was a great sorrow to the queen that she had no little daughter, for the sons were growing up, and she was often very lonely. "Like Snowdrop's mother," whispered Jill. "Now, don't keep interrupting, children, or we never shall get on," said Frank, more anxious to hear about the boys that were than the girl that was not.
We travelled down the creek in a south-west course, for about nine miles. Low sandstone ranges bounded its valley to the southward and south-east; stony ridges with stunted trees and Cypress-pine extended to the north-west. The banks of the creek, which I called "Snowdrop's Creek," after the bullock we had killed, were grassy and open; it was well provided with water.
But the old woman laced so quick and laced so tight, that Snowdrop's breath was stopped, and she fell down as if dead. "Now I am fairest at last," said the old woman to herself, and sped away. The seven dwarfs came home soon after, at eventide, but how alarmed were they to find their poor Snowdrop lifeless on the ground!
Now the Queen, after she thought she had eaten Snowdrop's lungs and liver, never dreamed but that she was once more the most beautiful woman in the world; so stepping before her mirror one day she said: 'Mirror, mirror, hanging there, Who in all the land's most fair? and the mirror replied: 'My Lady Queen, you are fair, 'tis true, But Snowdrop is fairer far than you.
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