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.
