So the Queen painted her face, and disguised herself as a poor old pedlar selling ribbons and stays. She walked to the forest, and to the cottage of the Seven Dwarfs where Snow White was busy with her daily chores. The Queen knocked at the door of the cottage and called, 'Stays for sale, ribbons for sale!' Snow White peeped out of the window and not recognizing her stepmother, thought, 'I might let this harmless old woman in.' The stepmother, seeing Snow White, held up a pair of colourful stays and called, 'Come dear, let me lace these up for you.' Snow White opened the door and let her in. The stepmother, pretending to do the stays, laced them so tightly that Snow White fell to the floor as though dead. Chuckling gleefully, the Queen hurried back to the palace, sure that she was now the fairest of them all.

That evening when the dwarfs came home, they found Snow White lying as though dead on the floor. They raised her up, and saw that her stays were too tight. They quickly cut the stays and soon Snow White opened her eyes and sat up. She told the dwarfs all that had happened. 'That old woman was none other than your stepmother the Queen,' they cried. 'Don't let her in again.'

Meanwhile the Queen reached the palace, and running up to her room pulled out her magic mirror and asked, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

The mirror replied as before:

You were the fairest, lady Queen
Snow White is fairest now, I ween.
In a cottage with the Seven Dwarfs
She lives amid the forest green.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs cont'd... 
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