ONCE upon a time, on a cold winter's day, a queen sat by the window of her castle. She sat and made clothes for her baby. She wanted to have a little girl.

Sometimes she Looked out of the window. Outside, the snow fell, and it was very cold.

“I don’t know,” Kim said. “He might be a banker who has a job in a bank on Wall Street.”
“What's a bank?”

Suddenly, she pricked her finger with her needle, and three drops of red blood fell from it.

‘Red is a beautiful colour,’ she thought. Then she Looked at the dark black wood of the trees outside and at the white snow.

‘My Little girl will be very beautiful,’ thought the Queen. ‘She will have skin as white as snow, hair as black as those trees and cheeks as red as blood.’

Soon the Queen had her baby, a little daughter. And the Little girl had skin as white as snow, hair as black as trees in winter and cheeks as red as blood.

‘Oh, dear little child,’ said the Queen, ‘you are very beautifull I will call you Snow White.’ She Loved the Little girl very much, But when Snow White was only two years old, a very sad thing happened. The Queen was very ill and she died.

After a few years, Snow White's father, the King, married again. His new queen was beautiful, but she was also nasty and unkind, She thought that she was the most beautiful woman in the country. ‘And I will always be the most beautiful woman in the country!’ she said. The new queen Looked at Snow White. She saw that the little girl was very beautiful, and she was jealous. She sawthe light in Snow White's eyes and she wanted to kill her.

The new queen had a magic mirror. Every day she stood in front of it and asked:
‘Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who is the most beautiful of all?’ The mirror always answered: ‘You are, Queen.'But one day, when she asked this question, the mirror answered:
‘Ofall the women who stand tall, “You, Queen, are the most beautiful of all. But listen now, for this is true: Snow White is more beautiful than you.’

The Queen was very angry. ‘When I see Snow White, I am ill!' she said. ‘She must die. I never want to see her face again.’ She gave some money to a huntsman and said to him, ‘Take Snow White into the forest and kill her. Do this or you will die. Go! Be quick! Bring me back her heart. Then I will know that she is dead.’

The huntsman did not want to do it, but he was afraid. So he took Snow White and together they walked into the forest. He put his hand on his knife three times. But each time Snow White turned and Looked at him, and he could not kill her.