A Gata da Lareira

Era uma vez uma professora viúva que tinha uma filha muito feia. Tinha também uma aluna muito bonita, filha de um viajante que vivia na mesma aldeia. A professora afeiçoou-se ao pai da menina e todos os dias pedia-lhe que fosse perguntar ao pai se ele queria casar com ela, prometendo-lhe papas feitas com mel.

Once there was a widowed schoolmistress who had a very plain daughter. She also had a very pretty pupil, the daughter of a traveller who lived in the same village. The mistress grew fond of the girl's father and every day asked her to go ask her father whether he wished to marry her, promising her porridge made with honey.

O pai respondia sempre que não, pois bem sabia que quem hoje prometia papas com mel, amanhã daria papas com fel. Mas a filha insistia tanto, a chorar, que o pai, para a consolar, disse que mandaria fazer umas botas de ferro e que quando essas botas apodrecem de velhas, casaria com a professora. A menina correu a contar à professora, que a instruiu a molhar as botas todos os dias. Assim fez, e as botas desfizeram-se rapidamente. O pai cumpriu a palavra e casou.

The father always replied no, for he well knew that whoever today promised porridge with honey, tomorrow would give porridge with gall. But his daughter insisted so much, weeping, that the father, to comfort her, said he would have iron boots made, and that when those boots rotted with age, he would marry the mistress. The girl ran to tell the mistress, who instructed her to wet the boots every day. She did so, and the boots fell apart quickly. The father kept his word and married.