Free The Juniper Tree and Other Tales by The Brothers Grimm Page A

longer now, but they told her it was Heaven’s doing, and her birth had been only the innocent cause of it.
    However, the girl fretted about her brothers every day, and decided that she must break the spell on them. She couldn’t rest, and one day she set off in secret and went out into the wide world to look for her brothers, determined to set them free at any price. She took nothing with her but a little ring as a memento of her parents, a loaf of bread to satisfy her hunger, a pitcher of water to quench her thirst and a little chair to sit on when she felt tired.
    So she went on and on, far, far away, until she reached the world’s end. She came to the sun, but the sun was hot and fierce, and ate up little children.
    She ran away in a hurry and went to see the moon, but the moon was icy cold, and cruel and wicked too. “I smell human flesh!” cried the moon, on seeing the child. So she ran away in haste and went to see the stars.
    The stars were kind and friendly, each of them sitting on its own little chair. The morning star, however, stood up, gave the girl a chicken bone and said, “You’ll never open the glass mountain without this bone, and your brothers are inside the glass mountain.”
    So the girl took the chicken bone, wrapped it carefully in a piece of cloth and went on again. She went on and on until she came to the glass mountain. The gate was locked, and the girl was going to take out the chicken bone, but when she undid the cloth she found it empty. She had lost the gift given to her by the kind stars.
    What was she to do now? She was determined to save her brothers, but she had no key to open the glass mountain. So the good little sister took a knife and cut off one of her little fingers, and when she put it in the lock the gate opened at once.
    Once she was inside the glass mountain, she saw a dwarf coming to meet her. “My dear, what are you looking for?” asked the dwarf.
    “I’m looking for my brothers, the seven ravens,” she said.
    “Well,” said the dwarf, “my masters the ravens are not at home, but if you’d like to wait until they come back, then please step this way.”
    Then the dwarf carried in the ravens’ dinner on seven little dishes, and their drink in seven little goblets, and their sister ate a scrap from every dish and drank a sip from every goblet, but she dropped the ring she had brought from home in the last little goblet.
    All of a sudden there was a whirring in the air and a flapping of wings, and the dwarf said, “Here come my masters, the ravens, flying home.”
    In came the ravens, hungry and thirsty, and they went to eat and drink from their little dishes and goblets. Then each of them said, one after another, “Who’s been eating out of my dish? Who’s been drinking out of my goblet? Some human mouth was here.”
    And as the seventh raven reached the bottom of his goblet the ring rolled out. When he saw it, he recognized it as a ring that had belonged to his mother and father.
    “Oh, if only our little sister were here,” he said, “then the spell on us would be broken!”
    The girl, who was hiding behind the door listening, heard his wish and came out. Then all the ravens returned to human form. The brothers and their sister hugged and kissed each other, and then they went happily home.

LITTLE RED CAPE
    O NCE UPON A TIME there was a sweet little girl. Everyone who saw her loved her, and her grandmother loved her most of all. She never tired of giving the child presents. One day she gave her a little cape with a hood made of red velvet, and because it suited her so well and she wore it all the time, everyone called her Little Red Cape.
    Well, one day her mother told the child, “Look, Little Red Cape, here’s a piece of cake and a bottle of wine, and I want you to take them out into the woods to your grandmother. She’s feeling weak and poorly, and they’ll do her good. So set off before the sun gets hot, and when you’re out in the forest keep to