There was once a man whose wife died, and a woman whose husband died. The man had a daughter, and the woman also had a daughter. The girls knew each other. One day, the woman said to the man's daughter, "Tell your father I wish to marry him. If he agrees, you shall wash in milk and drink wine every morning, while my daughter will use only water."
The girl told her father. Unsure, the man devised a test. He gave his daughter a boot with a hole in the sole and told her to hang it in the loft, pour water into it, and see if it held. Miraculously, the water sealed the hole, and the boot remained full. Taking this as a sign, the man married the widow.
True to her word, the stepmother gave her stepdaughter milk and wine the first morning. But by the third day, the roles were reversed, and the stepdaughter was given only water while the woman's own daughter received the luxuries. The stepmother grew bitterly envious of her beautiful and kind stepdaughter, while her own daughter was ugly and unpleasant.
One harsh winter, the stepmother made a paper dress for her stepdaughter and ordered her to go into the frozen forest to fetch a basket of strawberries. "But no strawberries grow in winter!" the girl protested. The stepmother insisted, giving her only a small piece of hard bread, hoping she would perish.
Obediently, the girl went into the snowy woods. She found a small house where three dwarfs lived. She greeted them politely, shared her meager bread, and warmed herself by their stove. When they asked why she was there, she explained her impossible task. After she ate, they gave her a broom and asked her to sweep the snow at the back door.
While she worked outside, the dwarfs discussed rewarding her kindness. The first granted that she would grow more beautiful each day. The second decreed that gold coins would fall from her mouth whenever she spoke. The third promised that a king would come and marry her.
When the girl finished sweeping, she discovered ripe, red strawberries growing beneath the snow! She filled her basket, thanked the dwarfs, and hurried home. As soon as she greeted her stepmother, a gold coin fell from her lips. As she told her story, more gold coins poured out, covering the floor.
The stepmother's own daughter, consumed by envy, demanded to go to the forest. Reluctantly, her mother gave her warm furs and rich food. The girl went to the dwarfs' house but was rude, refused to share her food, and scorned their request to sweep. After she left, the dwarfs cursed her: she would grow uglier daily, toads would jump from her mouth when she spoke, and she would die a miserable death. She returned empty-handed and, when she tried to speak, toads leaped from her mouth, horrifying everyone.
Furious, the stepmother plotted further harm. She boiled yarn, flung it on her stepdaughter's shoulder, gave her an axe, and ordered her to rinse it in a hole cut in the frozen river. As the girl worked, a king rode by in his carriage. Struck by her beauty and plight, he asked her to come with him. She gladly agreed, and they were married in his palace.
A year later, the young queen gave birth to a son. Hearing of her good fortune, the stepmother and her daughter visited. When the king was away, they threw the queen out of a window into the river below. The ugly daughter took her place in the bed, and the old woman claimed the queen was ill and sweating.
The next morning, when the king spoke to the impostor, toads, not gold, came from her mouth. The old woman blamed it on the "violent perspiration." That night, a kitchen boy saw a duck swim up the gutter. It asked about the king, the guests, and the baby. Receiving answers, it transformed into the queen, nursed her child, and then left. This happened for two nights. On the third night, the duck-queen told the boy to have the king swing his sword over her three times on the threshold. The king did so, and his true wife was restored to him, alive and well.
The king hid his queen until their son's christening. At the ceremony, he asked the stepmother, "What does a person deserve who drags another from bed and throws them in the water?" "Such a wretch," she answered, "deserves to be put in a barrel full of nails and rolled into the river." "You have pronounced your own sentence," said the king. And so it was done.