One Missing Glove

"Oh this is terrible, terrible. Cinderella, you bad girl, you must have thrown it somewhere on purpose!"

"Please, step-mother, I didn't do anything on purpose. I washed both pairs of gloves carefully - Anastasia's and Drizella's, and I put a bit of perfume on them as you'd instructed, and I hung them to dry. All four were there, then."

"Well, why are there only three now? How is Anastasia to go to the ball wearing just one glove? This will cost you half of your slice of bread at supper, Cinderella, you can be sure."

"Mother, I'll just wear my second best pair of gloves, that's all. It's the price we pay for having a stupid, lazy step-sister."

With the step-mother and sisters safely off, Cinderella sat alone at the fireside and wept. Where could that glove have gone? She had pegged them all so carefully.

"Psst," said a voice.

Cinderella started. There was no one else in the house, who was whispering?

"Psst, Cinderella, here, on the floor ..."

Cinderella looked down to see two of her best friends, the little mice, holding her step-sister's glove.

"I didn't know you could talk!" she gasped. "And you have the glove! How did you get it?"

"The Fairy Godmother has given us the power of human speech this day. See, she had a convention of Fairy Folk to attend, and she's the treasurer and had to submit the accounts, so she couldn't be here to turn pumpkins into coaches for you. She wanted to, you know."

"What are you talking about?"

"This glove. Now you have an excuse to follow Anastasia and Drizella to the ball, to give them the glove. Then maybe the Prince will be dazzled by your beauty."

Cinderella threw back her head and let out a peal of hysterical laughter.

"My beauty, and me in these rags?"

"Oh, you're not to wear rags. The cats are at Versace right now, borrowing an evening gown for you. You'll have to return it at midnight, though. So go wash up or whatever. And comb your hair."

Cinderella looked so pretty in ther Versace dress. She rode horseback to the ball.

She was dazzled by the lights and the crowds, and it took her a few minutes to find the faces of her step-sisters.

But in those few minutes, her beauty had been the most dazzling thing of all, and the Prince had already spotted her. As she walked over to her step-sisters, holding out the glove, he made his way through the crowd to her.

"Please," Cinderella said, as she approached the step-sisters, who were staring open mouthed. "Please, I found the glove, where it had fallen, and I've brought it to you."

Before either of them could respond, the Prince was there.

"A fallen glove? Well, I'm going to make a bad pun here. If you let the 'g' fall from glove, what do you get?"

Everyone stared.

"You get LOVE, and that's what I feel for you, fair maiden. Will you dance with me till the morrow, and for all the morrows yet to dawn, throughout our lives?"

"Well, I do have to get this dress back by midnight."

"My fair maiden - what is your sweet name?"

"Cinderella, your Highness."

"Well, Cinderella, you shall be given a hundred dresses and anything else, if only you'll dance with me way beyond midnight and beyond all the midnights to come. Will you?"

"I will," she replied.