Once upon a time there was a rich man who lived happily for a long time with his wife. Together they had a single daughter. Then the woman became ill, and when she was lying on her deathbed, she called her daughter to her side, and said, "Dear child, I must leave you now, but I will look down on you from heaven. Plant a little tree on my grave, and when you want something, just shake the tree, and you shall get what you want. I will help you in time of need. Just remain pious and good." Then she closed her eyes and died. The child cried, and planted a little tree on her mother's grave. She did not need to carry any water to it, because her tears provided all the water that it needed.

Once upon a time there lived a little girl, Ella, and her parents. Her parents didn't have much money, and needed to take a business trip to America to support their family. Her mother told her not to worry and that she would be taken care of and to call her if she ever needed anything.

Now there was among the nobles of the king's court one who had married twice, and by the first marriage he had but one daughter, and as she was growing up her father thought that she ought to have someone to look after her. So he married again, a lady with two daughters, and his new wife, instead of caring for his daughter, thought only of her own and favored them in every way. She would give them beautiful dresses but none to her stepdaughter who had only to wear the castoff clothes of the other two. 

Her parents dropped her off at her aunt Lora's house, and told her she would have fun with her cousins, Katie and Krystal. However, Lora and her daughters hated Ella because they thought she was trash. They were a wealthy family and treated Ella like the dirt on their shoes because she didn't have nice things like they did. Lora would come home with new clothes from the mall for her daughters and Ella was forced to where only the clothes that she brought.

The noble's daughter was set to do all the drudgery of the house, to attend the kitchen fire, and had naught to sleep on but the heap of cinder raked out in the scullery; and that is why they called her Cinder Maid. And no one took pity on her and she would go and weep at her mother's grave where she had planted a hazel tree, under which she sat.

You can imagine how excited they all were when they heard the king's proclamation called out by the herald..

Lora would try to make Ella do her chores, like cleaning the kitchen, cooking, doing their laundry, and tending to the yard. If she didn't want to do it, Lora threatened to tell her parents that she was misbehaving and not listening. On Lora's bad days, she made Ella clean out her fire place, and she always came out with cinders on her clothes. Eventually they began to call her "Cinderella." She often sat by the fire place and cried for her mom and wondered why they didn't take her with them.

"What shall we wear, mother; what shall we wear?" cried out the two daughters, and they all began talking about which dress should suit the one and what dress should suit the other, but when the father suggested that Cinder Maid should also have a dress they all cried out, "What, Cinder Maid going to the king's ball? Why, look at her, she would only disgrace us all." And so her father held his peace.

Now when the night came for the royal ball Cinder Maid had to help the two sisters to dress in their fine dresses and saw them drive off in the carriage with her father and their mother.

One day, Ella was sent out to buy groceries for the family. She rode her bike to the city and stopped at a small produce shop. Outside the store, was a couple of girls handing out invitations to a charity ball. Ella grabbed one and was super excited to go because it gave her a chance to get out of that awful house. She went up the street to Target, and bought a cute little dress and some heels to wear to the event. When she got home, she laid the invitation down on the counter to put the groceries away. Katie came into the kitchen and saw the invitation and snatched it up to bring to her mom.

 But she went to her own mother's grave and sat beneath the hazel tree and wept and cried out:

Tree o' mine, O tree o' me,With my tears I've watered thee;Make me a lady fair to see,Dress me as splendid as can be.

And with that the little bird on the tree called out to her:

Cinder Maid, Cinder Maid, shake the tree,Open the first nut that you see

Aunt Lora came into the kitchen, grabbed her newly bought dress, and threw it into the fireplace. Ella ran to the fireplace to get it back but it was too late. She ran outside and started crying under an old maple tree. She cried for hours, and by the time she looked at the clock, the event had already started and her cousins had taken her invitation to attend to the event themselves.

So Cinder Maid shook the tree and the first nut that fell she took up and opened, and what do you think she saw? -- a beautiful silk dress blue as the heavens, all embroidered with stars, and two little lovely shoon [shoes] made of shining copper. And when she had dressed herself the hazel tree opened and from it came a coach all made of copper with four milk-white horses, with coachman and footmen all complete. And as she drove away the little bird called out to her:

Be home, be home ere mid-o'-night Or else again you'll be a fright.

Her aunts neighbor, Cynthia, heard her crying and came outside to see what was happening. Ella told her about what happened with her aunt and Cynthia, told her that her aunt was just a mean old hag that no one really likes. She just so happened to own a boutique that sells really pretty dresses and told Ella she would lend her one for the night. Only she had to be home by midnight so that Cynthia could ship it back to her boutique so it could go on sale the next day.

When Cinder Maid entered the ballroom she was the loveliest of all the ladies, and the prince, who had been dancing with her stepsisters, would only dance with her. But as it came towards midnight Cinder Maid remembered what the little bird had told her and slipped away to her carriage. And when the prince missed her he went to the guards at the palace door and told them to follow the carriage. But Cinder Maid when she saw this, called out:

Mist behind and light before,Guide me to my father's door.