Brick Fairy Tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, and More (68 page)

and went down last with the youngest.

Half-way down the steps, he just trod a little on her dress;

she was terrified at that,

and cried out, “What is that? who is pulling my dress?”

“Don’t be so silly!” said the eldest, “you have caught it on a nail.”

Then they went all the way down, and when they were at the bottom, they were standing in a wonderfully pretty avenue of trees, all the leaves of which were of silver, and shone and glistened.

The soldier thought, “I must carry a token away with me,”

and broke off a twig from one of them, on which the tree cracked with a loud report.

The youngest cried out again. “Something is wrong, did you hear the crack?”

But the eldest said, “It is a gun fired for joy, because we have got rid of our prince so quickly.”

After that they came into an avenue where all the leaves were of gold,

and lastly into a third where they were of bright diamonds;