The good must be put in the dish,
The bad you may eat if you wish."
Then there came to the kitchen-window two white doves,
and after them some turtle-doves, and at last a crowd
of all the birds under heaven, chirping and fluttering,
and they alighted among the ashes; and the doves nodded
with their heads, and began to pick, peck, pick, peck,
and then all the others began to pick, peck, pick, peck,
and put all the good grains into the dish. Before an hour
was over all was done, and they flew away. Then the maiden
brought the dish to her step-mother, feeling joyful, and
thinking that now she should go to the feast; but the
step-mother said, "No, Cinderella, you have no proper clothes,
and you do not know how to dance, and you would be laughed at!"
And when Cinderella cried for disappointment, she added, "If you
can pick two dishes full of lentils out of the ashes, nice and
clean, you shall go with us," thinking to herself, "for that is
not possible." When she had strewed two dishes full of lentils
among the ashes the maiden went through the backdoor into the garden,
and cried, "O gentle doves, O turtle-doves, And all the birds that be,
The lentils that in ashes lie Come and pick up for me!
The good must be put in the dish,
The bad you may eat if you wish."