From "The Rose-Tree" by Joseph Jacobs

When I think of a fairytale I do not typically think of a little girl dying but in this story that is what happens. The little girl is not loved by her stepmother because she is jealous of her beautiful hair. One day the little girl loses the stepmother's money and instead of getting made she asks the little girl to lay her hair down over the stepmother's knee so she can brush it. Instead of brushing it with a comb she asks the little girl to fetch her an axe. With this axe she kills the little girl and cuts our her liver and her heart. For dinner, the stepmother tries to feed her husband and her son the little girl but they refuse to eat it because they say it tasted strange. The brother decides to barry the little girl under a rose-tree and by spring it begins to bloom. A little bird begins to appear there everyday who has a beautiful voice.

The bird begins to fly and travels to the cobbler to sing its beautiful song. "My wicked mother slew me, my dea father ate me, my little brother whom I love sits below, and I sing above stick, stock, stone dead". The cobbler loves the birds song and asks for her to sing again but the bird will only sing if she is given little red shoes. The cobbler gives her the shoes and she leaves to the watchmaker. She sings her song for him and he asks for her to sing it again. She will only sing if he gives her a gold watch with its chain, and so he does and she leave to the stone mill. She sings her song and the men love it. They ask her to sing again and she says only if they put a millstone around her neck. They do as she asks and she heads back to her rose tree. The bird begins to make a sound my hitting the stones on the house. The stepmother believes it is thunder so the little boy goes outside and sees the red shoes at the tree. Then the bird makes the sound again and the father goes outside and sees the watch under the tree. The bird makes the sound one last time and the stepmother goes outside to receive her own gift. The bird then drops the stone on top of her head and the stepmother dies.

This story is about reincarnation which is something many people believe in. The little girl came back as the bird to give her brother and father presents and to kill her stepmother. This story would not be a typical fairytale in most people's eyes but it is a story of revenge. The stepmother got what she deserved and the brother and the father were able to live happily without her.