Well, I asked for help finding the name of an obscure movie, and everyone tried, but we couldn’t figure it out. So now I’m going to try another question. But just in case this one doesn’t work out either, I’ll ask everyone to tell me what their favorite fairy tale is. That way, if I can’t find the one I’m looking for, I’ll have suggestions on something else to read!
The fairy tale I’m looking for was in a collection I read in the early 1970’s. It goes like this:
A king and queen have two daughters, named Day and Night. Then they have another daughter. Oops! So they change their daughters’ names to the four seasons. But then they have a fifth daughter. Ooops! So they name them after days of the week. And have and eight daughter. Ooops! So they change them to months of the year. The king tells the queen if they run out of names again, he’ll execute her. But it’s ok, because after that she only has sons. They name them after letters of the alphabet, so they don’t worry about running out of names.
The fairy tale then goes on about the eighth daughter, August. All her sisters are bitter from having their names changed so much, and they hate her. There’s a lot of standard “being mean to the main character stuff.” There’s also something about her sleeping with her window open at night. Because of the fresh air, she’s more beautiful than her sisters.
Eventually, despite all obstacles, she marries the prince of her dreams. But her sisters are all so mean, no one wants to marry them. So the king and queen have to give a pound of tea and a Siamese cat to each suitor who marries one of the other daughters.
