When Cinderella reached home, she found her Fairy Godmother waiting to
hear about the ball.

"It was fine!" said Cinderella. "The prince has invited me to attend the
ball to be given to-morrow night. Oh, how I wish that I might go!"

"You may certainly go to the prince's ball to-morrow night. I wish to
make you very happy, dear child," said the Fairy Godmother.

By the time the mother and sisters had returned home from the ball, the
Fairy Godmother had disappeared.

Cinderella was sitting by the kitchen fire in her rags.

"Do you not wish that you had been to the ball?" asked the sisters.
"There was a wonderful princess there. The prince would dance with no
one else."

"Who was she?" asked Cinderella.

"That we cannot say," answered the two sisters. "She would not tell her
name, though the prince, on bended knee, begged her to do so."

The next night, as soon as the mother and sisters had started in their
carriage to attend the ball, the Fairy Godmother appeared once more.

Again, at the touch of her wand, the pumpkin became a coach; the mice
became horses; the rat became a coachman, and the lizards became
footmen.