The Royal Ball
Soon, the evening of the ball had ap-proached. Since morning that day, Cinderella was appointed by her stepmother to take care of her daughter’s needs. She stood by their side all through the day attending to their smallest needs and assisting in their preparations for the ball.
Cinderella was kept engaged every second by her sisters, who cried, “Cinderella! Comb our hair, brush our shoes, iron our dress and colour our toe nails.”
Though Cinderella had no chance to dress well, both the sisters knew that Cinderella was very artistic. She had ex-cellent ideas to make the most ordinary thing look beautiful. She also had the art of dressing up elegantly too.
Her stepsisters ordered her to ignore the daily chores and slay with them till they left for the ball. For once, they were more than delighted to accept her suggestions and advice because they knew that following her word would make them more presentable and beautiful.
In spite of knowing that her sisters were just using her as a maid, kindhearted Cinderella offered to fix their hair and dressed them up as beautifully as she could. Finally by evening, both the sisters were dressed in their best clothes and looked more beautiful than ever.
As Cinderella was giving final touches to their hairdo, one of the sisters asked, “Cinderella! Would you not like to attend the ball with us?” Sighing, Cinderella replied, “How I wish, even I could attend the ball. But alas! It is not a place for people like me lo go. I do not even have a proper dress.”
Agreeing with her, the sisters laughed and replied, “ Just imagine how people would laugh to find a dirty Cinder Maid amidst them in the ball. True! It is not a place for people like you.” Hurt by their words, Cinderella silently finished her work and retired from their room.
In the past seven days, Cinderella had resigned to her fate and consoled herself that she could not go to the ball. But the words of her sisters re-planted the wish to attend it. “There is no harm in pleading mother once.
She might agree to take me also to the ball,” she said to herself while she paced towards her stepmother’s room. As soon as she knocked at her door, the coarse voice of her stepmother replied, “Come in”. Though the courage she gathered till then drained out, with no other option, Cinderella stepped in to her mother’s room, shivering with fear.
As her looks fell on Cinderella, her mother frowned and asked, “Hey girl! Why have you come here? What do you want?” When Cinderella stood there searching for words, her mother’s face grew sterner.
She shouted, “What is it you want? Do not waste my time showing me your ugly face.” With no retreat from that dreadful situation, Cinderella slowly asked, “Mother! I wanted to request you if I too can come with you all to the ball.”
Laughing aloud at her, her mother said, “Sure my girl! You can certainly accompany us, but on one condition.” Saying so, she quickly got up from her bed, caught hold of Cinderella’s arm and literally ’ dragged her to their backyard.
In the backyard, her mother scattered a bowl of lentils in to the ashes and said, “Cinderella! If you can sort them out in the next two hours, then you may go with us.” “Dirty girl, wants to go to the ball without proper shoes and dress. Seems she had decided to disgrace us,” muttered her stepmother, as she left the backyard.
Hearing her stepmother’s words and looking helplessly at the huge task given to her, Cinderella sobbed and sobbed for a long time. She was sure that she wouldn’t be able to sort the lentils in the next two hours.
As she sat there weeping, two white pigeons, which observed her daily, quickly gathered some more birds and came for help. The birds started to sort the lentils as Cinderella watched them with delight.
The pigeons and the birds did nothing but pick, pick and pick. While the good lentils went into the pot, the bad ones went down. Even before one hour, the birds handed over the pot of sorted lentils to her and soared high into the sky.
Thanking the birds for their timely help, Cinderella quickly wiped off her tears and ran to her mother with the lentils. She was sure that she too could make it to the ball. But alas! She did not know then how frightfully wrong she was.
Though her quick work astonished her mother, she said, “Cinderella! You have neither good shoes nor clothes. How can you come to the ball? Drop the idea and guard the house while we are away.” Disheartened by her words, when Cinderella began to cry, her stepmother quickly asked her to stop crying, fearing that her father might intervene and take her to the ball.
In order to get rid of her, her mother said, “Okay! I can allow you to the ball only if you sort two bowls of lentils from the ashes in one hour.” She again took her to the backyard, scattered the lentils and left thinking that she would never be able to finish the task in one hour.
This time, Cinderella had not sobbed like before. Instead, she stood up, looked at the sky and called out, “Oh my dear pigeons and birds! Please come and help me finish the task, for I really want to go to the ball.”
As soon as she said so, again the pigeons and the birds came down flying and got busy sorting the lentils. In less than an hour, they handed over two bowls of lentils to Cinderella and flew away, wishing her luck at the ball.
Certain that her stepmother would take her to the ball, Cinderella swiftly ran to her with those two bowls and begged her to let her go with them. Hiding her astonishment at the girl’s swiftness in accomplishing such a huge task, the stepmother replied, “Cinderella! There is no use pleading me so hard. You cannot come with us to the ball. You neither have proper dress to wear nor shoes.
Above that you do not know how to dance too. You are going to be nothing but a cause of shame to us. You are lit for nothing except to stay back in the house in those dirty, old rags.” Saying so, the stepmother turned away and called out her beautifully dressed daughters, hurrying them to come downstairs.
As she saw them with tear-filled eyes, her sisters, mother and father stepped to-wards their carriage and drove away even without bidding her good bye. She stood at the entrance and looked at the carriage as long as she could set her eyes on it. When she lost sight of the carriage, all that was left behind was Cinderella and the empty house.