Here is a retelling of the story of Mother Holda

Here is a fairy tale called Mother Holda about 2 girls who are stepsisters.

One is sweet and good but is forced to do all the work or be beaten mercilessly by her stepmother. The other is lazy and cruel but she gets away with being idol and unhelpful because she is the mother’s own true child and this is the stuff of fairy tales.
The good daughter is sent to a well to get water and as she must always be diligent, she is busily spinning thread with a drop spindle while she walks to the well. As she lowers the bucket from the well into the well to collect the water, She suddenly pricks her finger with the spindle. It draws three drops of blood and the spindle falls into the well. This good daughter is quite distraught. She knows the beating waiting her for at home will be severe once her stepmother discovers the that she lost the spindle. In her moment of hopelessness, she throws herself into the depths of the well believing that death is preferable to the limitations her life has left her with.
The girl awakens and finds that not only is she not dead but she Is in a new world with a blue sky and green grass. In a daze, she stands up and dusts herself off and begins to wander through this new world. Quickly, a talking apple tree confronts the girl. Clearly, her expectations about the world and her relationship to it need to change.
The apple tree calls out, “ Pick me, pick me! My apples are heavy and they threaten to break my limbs. I fear I will fall apart!” So the girl shook the tree, she shook it until all the apples fell like sparkling rubies around her. Then she collected the apples and put them in a neat pile, perhaps someone with a wheelbarrow will come for them.
“Thank you!” cried out the gnarled tree, “You are a gem.”
The young girl walked on through this strange world and encountered a cow, the bovine called out to her, “Milk me, milk me! I am so full that I fear I will burst.” The girl picked up the bucket and milking stool that was nearby. She sat down by the cow and milked her. The milk flowed into the bucket like great strings of pearls glistening in the strange light of this underworld. The cow looked back toward the girl and mooed her contentment.
“Many thanks to you, sweet one.” The cow said, “You are a pearl.”
The girl set out again on her journey and she came to an oven filled with trays of biscuits which called out to her, “Take us out, take us out or we will surely burn.” Quickly the girl scooped up her skirt in her hands to use as a potholder and removed the golden brown biscuits from the oven. She set them on a rack to cool. “We thank you. You are more valuable to us then all the treasure in the kings coffers.”
Now the journey was given direction because the sweet girl saw in the distance smoke coming from a chimney and she soon arrived at a small cabin surrounded by a garden that was surrounded by a fence. A frightening old and ugly woman was bent over her plants in the garden. When she stood up and saw the girl she smiled with a mouth full of large white teeth that frightened the girl. But the old hag spoke kindly to the child and invited her into the garden. The lass explained that she was lost and needed help as she stepped through the gate. The gate was a large arbor that arched over her head and was brimming with roses and trumpet flowers.
“ You can stay with me for as long as you like.” Said the old woman. “I need someone to help me with my house keeping. Will you help me.?”
“Oh yes.” Explained the lass, she was relieved to have a place to stay in this strange underworld.
“Here is what you must do.” The woman explained how she expected the house to be cleaned, the floors to be scrubbed and the cobwebs swept away from every corner and then she said, “Now dear, this is very important, every morning you must make my bed and you must shake the mattress until the feathers fly, for I am Mother Holda and when the the feathers fly, it snows up in the land above.”
The girl did as she was told. She kept the house and made the bed shaking the mattress until the feather flew. Mother Holda was kind to her and she lived with her in happiness and contentment for quite a long time. As time works differently in the underworld, it is hard to know how long is long and how short is short but after a while, the girl spoke to Mother Holda.
“I know that you have been good to me and that this is a kind world compared to my own, but I miss my family and my village and the things that have been familiar to me since my birth. It is time for me to go home.”
Mother Holda was quite agreeable and told the girl to be well on journey. Mother Holda explained that all the girl needed to do was step through the gate under her arbor and she would immediately be in her own village.” As the girl stepped through the gate, Mother Holda said, “And now you shall get the reward for your service.”
One step, and she was under the gate. A second step and she was in a void dark and cold. She took her third step an found herself in her own village. The people who lived there were surprised to see her.
“We thought you were gone forever from this world. You went to the well and never came back.”
The girl began to explain about her journey and every time she spoke, gold, jewels and pearls came pouring out of her mouth. This was something amazing! The girls stepmother grabbed her up and took her home a extracted every detail from the girl. From the pricking of her finger and the lost spindle to leaving Mother Holda’s garden. Then the selfish woman took her lazy daughter by the arm.
“You will not be outdone by this false daughter! You are my own true daughter and you will bring back jewels and gold for me.” She dragged the cruel girl to the well, pricked her finger, threw the spindle into the well and then threw her own daughter into the well after the spindle!
The lazy girl awoke in the underworld and found things to be just as her sister had described. But when she came upon the apple tree yelling out, “Pick me, pick me! My apples are heavy and they threaten to break my limbs. I fear I will fall apart!”
The girl replied, “I should think not! One of your apples might fall on my head and hurt me.” And so the apples dried up an became consumed by worms.
When she passed by the cow, and the cow said, “Milk me, milk me! I am so full that I fear I will burst.”
She called back to the cow, “I should think not! You might just kick me.” A newt and a toad crawled out of the bucket and watched this self important young girl rush on toward Mother Holda’s house.
When she strode past the oven it cried out as before, “Take us out, take us out or we will surely burn.”
“I should think not! I might get burned myself.” The girl marched on but the biscuits turned to sticky tar in the oven. Finally she came to Mother Holda”s house. Mother Holda was working in her garden just as was when the industrious sister first saw her.
The lazy girl struck the same deal with Mother Holda, promising to clean her house and shake the bed until feathers flew. One the first day the girl worked hard, thinking of the reward she would get. On the second day she was much less careful with the chores and when she made the bed she did not shake it hard to make the feathers fly. On the third day, she barely did any work at all.
“My dear child,” said Mother Holda, “ you have worked for me long enough, I am ready to send you home.”
The lazy girl was delighted for now she would get her reward and gold and gems would come out of her mouth whenever she spoke. She happily went to the gate.
Mother Holda set her through the gate saying, “And now you shall get the reward for your service.”
Just like her sister before her, the girl took three steps and arrived home in her own village. She was quickly surrounded by the townspeople asking questions about her journey. When she opened her mouth to speak with pride about her bravery and perseverance in the underworld, out of her mouth came worms and newts and toads and sticky tar.
From that day forward no one would go near the girl and she died alone and unhappy. But the good, hard working and industrious lass was sought out far and wide.
And she lived a long and prosperous life.