How indeed to live. Economies had to be taken. Ella's step-mother dismissed the household....

Fairy Godmother: [narrating, after Ella's father dies] How indeed to live. Economies had to be taken. Ella's step-mother dismissed the household. Her step-mother and step-sisters ever misused her. And by and by they considered Ella less a sister than a servant. And so Ella was left to do all the work. This was a good thing, for it distracted her from her grief. At least that was what her step-mother said. And she and her two daughters were more than happy to provide Ella with lots and lots of distraction. In their defense, they did share with her the very food they ate, or rather, the scraps from their table. She had little in the way of friends. Well, her friends were very little. Cinderella: [seeing Gus-Gus and his fellow mice] There you are. Have dinner with me, won't you? Fairy Godmother: But those friends she had, she treated with an open heart and an open hand. Cinderella: [setting up a overturned teacup and mini-doily] Your table. Fairy Godmother: Sometimes, by the end of the day, the drafty attic was too cold to spend the night in, so she lay by the dying embers of the hearth to keep warm.