The Rose Tree by Joseph Jacobs

This tale could be slightly graphic for younger readers/listeners. There once was a father with two children--a girl and a boy. One from the first wife; one from the current. And the current wife was a total witch. She hated the little girl for she was born from the wife before. One day the evil stepmother orders the little girl to go into town and retrieve some candles. The little girl tried three times, but every time a big dog swooped in and stole her stepmother's candles. Hence, the little girl walked home with only her head in her hands. When she arrived, the stepmother did not seem upset at all. She only asked to comb the little girl's hair. Upon seeing her beautiful hair, she asked the little girl to fetch many different instruments in order for her to part it. The last instrument was an ax. With that, the stepmother chopped off the little girl's head, dug out her liver and her heart, and began to cook a stew that she later served for dinner. The father tasted the stew and felt that it did not taste quite right. The little boy then figured out what was wrong with the soup--his half sister was the main ingredient. Upon this realization, he took all of the body parts from the deceased and buried them underneath the rose tree. Then it is almost as if the little girl is reincarnated as a dove and roams all over town trading its song for things of worth--one of which was a millstone. One night, the dove struck the millstone against the house impersonating thunder. The little boy and the father ran outside catching all of the things of worth believing that the thunder dropped these treasures from the sky. Because justice must be served, the stepmother also ran outside believing the thunder would drop something from the sky for her. When she did, the dove dropped the millstone on the stepmother and she too died.