So the Miller was frightened, and whitened his paws. People are like
that, you know.
Now the wretch went for the third time to the door, and knocked, and
said--
'Open the door, children. Your dear mother has come home, and has
brought something for each of you out of the wood.'
The Kids cried, 'Show us your feet first, that we may be sure you are
our mother.'
He put his paws on the window sill, and when they saw that they were
white, they believed all he said, and opened the door.
Alas! It was the Wolf who walked in. They were terrified, and tried to
hide themselves. One ran under the table, the second jumped into bed,
the third into the oven, the fourth ran into the kitchen, the fifth
got into the cupboard, the sixth into the wash-tub, and the seventh
hid in the tall clock-case. But the Wolf found them all but one, and
made short work of them. He swallowed one after the other, except the
youngest one in the clock-case, whom he did not find. When he had
satisfied his appetite, he took himself off, and lay down in a meadow
outside, where he soon fell asleep.
Not long after the old Nanny-goat came back from the woods. Oh! what a
terrible sight met her eyes! The house door was wide open, table,
chairs, and benches were overturned, the washing bowl was smashed to
atoms, the covers and pillows torn from the bed. She searched all over
the house for her children, but nowhere were they to be found. She
called them by name, one by one, but no one answered. At last, when
she came to the youngest, a tiny voice cried:
'I am here, dear mother, hidden in the clock-case.'
She brought him out, and he told her that the Wolf had come and
devoured all the others.
You may imagine how she wept over her children.
At last, in her grief, she went out, and the youngest Kid ran by her
side. When they went into the meadow, there lay the Wolf under a tree,
making the branches shake with his snores. They examined him from
every side, and they could plainly see movements within his distended
body.
'Ah, heavens!' thought the Goat, 'is it possible that my poor children
whom he ate for his supper, should be still alive?'
She sent the Kid running to the house to fetch scissors, needles, and
thread. Then she cut a hole in the monster's side, and, hardly had she
begun, when a Kid popped out its head, and as soon as the hole was big
enough, all six jumped out, one after the other, all alive, and
without having suffered the least injury, for, in his greed, the
monster had swallowed them whole. You may imagine the mother's joy.
She hugged them, and skipped about like a tailor on his wedding day.
At last she said:
'Go and fetch some big stones, children, and we will fill up the
brute's body while he is asleep.'
Then the seven Kids brought a lot of stones, as fast as they could
carry them, and stuffed the Wolf with them till he could hold no more.
The old mother quickly sewed him up, without his having noticed
anything, or even moved.
At last, when the Wolf had had his sleep out, he got up, and, as the
stones made him feel very thirsty, he wanted to go to a spring to
drink. But as soon as he moved the stones began to roll about and
rattle inside him. Then he cried--
'What's the rumbling and tumbling
That sets my stomach grumbling?
I thought 'twas six Kids, flesh and bones,
Now find it's nought but rolling stones.'
[Illustration: {The Seven Kids and their mother capered and danced
round the spring in their joy.}]
When he reached the spring, and stooped over the water to drink, the
heavy stones dragged him down, and he was drowned miserably.
When the seven Kids saw what had happened, they came running up, and
cried aloud--'The Wolf is dead, the Wolf is dead!' and they and their
mother capered and danced round the spring in their joy.