A long time ago, there stood a cottage at the edge of the woods. In this cottage lived a widow with her two daughters. The younger girl, named Maria, was fair and kind and sweet-tempered. The older, named Isabelle, was often vain and unkind, making it difficult for anyone except her mother to tolerate her. Strange to say, the mother loved her far better than her sister.
Maria did all the work of the house and had harsh words from her mother. Every day, she had to sit by the spring in the garden and spin and spin until her fingers bled.

One day as she was sitting there hard at work, her spindle, or spool, slipped from her fingers. It fell to the bottom of the spring and was lost to sight. The poor girl looked for it in vain, then she went and told her mother what had happened.
Her mother scolded her.
”You are so careless!” she said. ”You let the spindle fall because you do not wish to work. But you may as well get it out. I shall not buy another.”
Maria went weeping to the spring and stooped to see if she could find the spindle. Alas! she leaned too far and fell. But instead of staying in the water, she fell right through the spring and came out on the other side. She found herself in a beautiful meadow. The sun was shining brightly and there were thousands of flowers in blossom.

There was a little path across the meadow, and this she followed. It led after a while to an oven full of bread. The bread loaves cried:
”Take us out! Take us out! We are done to a turn.”
Maria stepped to the oven and took out all the loaves. Then she walked on.

Soon she came to a tree full of ripe red apples. The tree cried,
”Shake me! Shake me! My apples are all ripe.”
Then she shook the tree until the apples fell round her like rain. She gathered them together in a heap and went on.

At last, she came to a small cottage. In the doorway stood an old woman. She looked so strange and so fierce that the girl started to run away.
But the woman called after her:
”Do not be afraid, dear child. Come here and live with me. Obey me and do your duty and you will meet with only kindness. Every day you must make my bed well, and shake it so that the feathers fly. Then there will be snow upon the earth, for I am Old Mother Frost.”

So Maria went to live with Old Mother Frost. Every day she shook the bed until the feathers flew like snowflakes. She had plenty to eat and drink and never heard an unkind word. For a long time she was happy there with the old woman. But at last she began to feel sad. She was homesick, after all, and longed to go back to her mother and sister.
”Dear Old Mother Frost,” she said, ”you are kind and good. But after all, they are my mother and my sister, and that is my home. I long to see them.”

Then Old Mother Frost said,
”It is but right that you should wish to go home. You have served me well and truly, and you shall not miss your reward.”
She took the girl by the hand and led her up the path. They came at last to an open gate. As the girl passed through, there fell a shower of gold which clung to her dress. She was covered with gold from head to foot.
”That is your reward for honest, faithful work,” said Old Mother Frost.
Then she put the lost spindle in Maria's hand.

The gate closed. All at once, Maria found herself beside the spring in her mother's garden. A cockerel perched on the wall crowed:
”Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Gold-covered maiden,
A welcome to you.”
Because of the gold, her mother and sister were glad to see her and spoke kindly.
”Where have you been?” they asked.
She told them all that had happened.
Then her mother said to her favourite daughter Isabelle,
”You must go to Old Mother Frost, my dear, and get your share of her gold.”

The older daughter, Isabelle, went out and sat beside the spring to spin. She wanted riches without work and she would not spin long enough nor fast enough to make her fingers bleed. Until there was blood on the spindle it would not go down to the bottom of the spring. So the girl put her hand in a thorn bush and pricked her finger. A few drops of blood fell on the spindle.
Then she threw it into the spring and jumped in after it. She found herself in the beautiful meadow, and walked down the path until she came to the oven.
She heard the loaves cry,
”Take us out! Take us out! We shall burn, for we have been long baking.”
But the girl answered,
”No, indeed. I have no wish to soil my hands in an oven or to burn my fingers with hot loaves.”

She walked on until she came to the apple tree.
”Shake me! Shake me!” it cried. ”My apples are all quite ripe.”
”That I will not,” she answered. ”Some of your apples might fall on my head.”
And she walked lazily on.

After a while, she arrived at the door of Mother Frost's house. She entered straight away and offered to serve the old woman.
”Very well,” said Mother Frost, and told her what to do.
For a whole day, the girl worked well. She thought about the gold she hoped to have.
On the second day she didn't do as well.
And on the third day it was worse.
Day after day, she woke up late, forgot to sweep under the bed and stopped shaking the feathers from the bedding, becoming more and more careless with her tasks and ruder.

”I no longer need you,” said Mother Frost at last. ”You may go home.”
The girl was tired of staying where she wasn't pampered or looked after. She ran down the path without even saying goodbye. The gate was open.
”Ah!” she thought, ”the shower of gold will come when I pass through it.”

So she walked very slowly. But instead of gold, down came a kettle of tar and pitch. The cockerel crowed loudly:
”Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Pitch-covered maiden,
No welcome to you.”
The tar stuck to her clothes. It clung, not only to her clothes, but to her skin and her hair. And, as long as she lived, it never came off.