บทที่ บทที่ 4 · The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids

. The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids

There was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and

loved them with all the love of a mother for her children. One day she

wanted to go into the forest and fetch some food. So she called all

seven to her and said, “Dear children, I have to go into the forest, be

on your guard against the wolf; if he come in, he will devour you

all—skin, hair, and all. The wretch often disguises himself, but you

will know him at once by his rough voice and his black feet.” The kids

said, “Dear mother, we will take good care of ourselves; you may go

away without any anxiety.” Then the old one bleated, and went on her

way with an easy mind.

It was not long before some one knocked at the house-door and called,

“Open the door, dear children; your mother is here, and has brought

something back with her for each of you.” But the little kids knew that

it was the wolf, by the rough voice; “We will not open the door,” cried

they, “thou art not our mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but thy

voice is rough; thou art the wolf!” Then the wolf went away to a

shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made

his voice soft with it. The he came back, knocked at the door of the

house, and cried, “Open the door, dear children, your mother is here

and has brought something back with her for each of you.” But the wolf

had laid his black paws against the window, and the children saw them

and cried, “We will not open the door, our mother has not black feet

like thee; thou art the wolf.” Then the wolf ran to a baker and said,

“I have hurt my feet, rub some dough over them for me.” And when the

baker had rubbed his feet over, he ran to the miller and said, “Strew

some white meal over my feet for me.” The miller thought to himself,

“The wolf wants to deceive someone,” and refused; but the wolf said,

“If thou wilt not do it, I will devour thee.” Then the miller was

afraid, and made his paws white for him. Truly men are like that.

So now the wretch went for the third time to the house-door, knocked at

it and said, “Open the door for me, children, your dear little mother

has come home, and has brought every one of you something back from the

forest with her.” The little kids cried, “First show us thy paws that

we may know if thou art our dear little mother.” Then he put his paws

in through the window, and when the kids saw that they were white, they

believed that all he said was true, and opened the door. But who should

come in but the wolf! They were terrified and wanted to hide

themselves. One sprang under the table, the second into the bed, the

third into the stove, the fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the

cupboard, the sixth under the washing-bowl, and the seventh into the

clock-case. But the wolf found them all, and used no great ceremony;

one after the other he swallowed them down his throat. The youngest,

who was in the clock-case, was the only one he did not find. When the

wolf had satisfied his appetite he took himself off, laid himself down

under a tree in the green meadow outside, and began to sleep. Soon

afterwards the old goat came home again from the forest. Ah! What a

sight she saw there! The house-door stood wide open. The table, chairs,

and benches were thrown down, the washing-bowl lay broken to pieces,

and the quilts and pillows were pulled off the bed. She sought her

children, but they were nowhere to be found. She called them one after

another by name, but no one answered. At last, when she came to the

youngest, a soft voice cried, “Dear mother, I am in the clock-case.”

She took the kid out, and it told her that the wolf had come and had

eaten all the others. Then you may imagine how she wept over her poor

children.

At length in her grief she went out, and the youngest kid ran with her.

When they came to the meadow, there lay the wolf by the tree and snored

so loud that the branches shook. She looked at him on every side and

saw that something was moving and struggling in his gorged belly. “Ah,

heavens,” said she, “is it possible that my poor children whom he has

swallowed down for his supper, can be still alive?” Then the kid had to

run home and fetch scissors, and a needle and thread, and the goat cut

open the monster’s stomach, and hardly had she make one cut, than one

little kid thrust its head out, and when she cut farther, all six

sprang out one after another, and were all still alive, and had

suffered no injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster had

swallowed them down whole. What rejoicing there was! They embraced

their dear mother, and jumped like a sailor at his wedding. The mother,

however, said, “Now go and look for some big stones, and we will fill

the wicked beast’s stomach with them while he is still asleep.” Then

the seven kids dragged the stones thither with all speed, and put as

many of them into his stomach as they could get in; and the mother

sewed him up again in the greatest haste, so that he was not aware of

anything and never once stirred.

When the wolf at length had had his sleep out, he got on his legs, and

as the stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he wanted to go to

a well to drink. But when he began to walk and move about, the stones

in his stomach knocked against each other and rattled. Then cried he,

“What rumbles and tumbles

Against my poor bones?

I thought ’t was six kids,

But it’s naught but big stones.”

And when he got to the well and stooped over the water and was just

about to drink, the heavy stones made him fall in, and there was no

help, but he had to drown miserably. When the seven kids saw that, they

came running to the spot and cried aloud, “The wolf is dead! The wolf

is dead!” and danced for joy round about the well with their mother.