In the winter Snow-white lit the fire and hung the kettle on the hob. In the summer Rose-red took care of the house, and every morning laid a wreath of flowers by her mother’s bed before she awoke, in which was a rose from each tree. Snow-white and Rose-red kept their mother’s little cottage so neat that it was a pleasure to look inside it.

And their mother told them that it must have been the angel who watches over good children. And when they looked round they found that they had been sleeping quite close to a precipice, and would certainly have fallen into it in the darkness if they had gone only a few paces further. He got up and looked quite kindly at them, but said nothing and went into the forest. Once when they had spent the night in the wood and the dawn had roused them, they saw a beautiful child in a shining white dress sitting near their bed. No mishap overtook them if they had stayed too late in the forest, and night came on, they laid themselves down near one another upon the moss, and slept until morning came, and their mother knew this and did not worry on their account. The little hare would eat a cabbage-leaf out of their hands, the roe grazed by their side, the stag leapt merrily by them, and the birds sat still upon the boughs, and sang whatever they knew. They often ran about the forest alone and gathered red berries, and no beasts did them any harm, but came close to them trustfully. The two children were so fond of one another that they always held each other by the hand when they went out together, and when Snow-white said: ‘We will not leave each other,’ Rose-red answered: ‘Never so long as we live,’ and their mother would add: ‘What one has she must share with the other.’ Rose-red liked better to run about in the meadows and fields seeking flowers and catching butterflies but Snow-white sat at home with her mother, and helped her with her housework, or read to her when there was nothing to do. They were as good and happy, as busy and cheerful as ever two children in the world were, only Snow-white was more quiet and gentle than Rose-red.

She had two children who were like the two rose-trees, and one was called Snow-white, and the other Rose-red. In front of the cottage was a garden wherein stood two rose-trees, one of which bore white and the other red roses. There was once a poor widow who lived in a lonely cottage.

White rose puzzle