MOTHER HULDA Author: Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm SE49
Channel: Free Storytelling Of Classic Tales
Date: 2022-05-31

A widow had two daughters; one was pretty and industrious, the other was ugly and lazy. And as the ugly one was her own daughter, she loved her much the best, and the pretty one was made to do all the work, and be the drudge of the house. Every day the poor girl had to sit by a well on the high road and spin until her fingers bled. Now it happened once that as the spindle was bloody, she dipped it into the well to wash it; but it slipped out of her hand and fell in. Then she began to cry, and ran to her step-mother, and told her of her misfortune, and her step-mother scolded her without mercy, and said in her rage,
"As you have let the spindle fall in, you must go and fetch it out again!"
Then the girl went back again to the well, not knowing what to do, and in the despair of her heart she jumped down into the well the same way the spindle had gone.