The Blue Fairy Book
he lay in his bed, that they were talking very busily, he got up softly,
and hid himself under his father’s stool, that he might hear what they
said without being seen. He went to bed again, but did not sleep a wink
all the rest of the night, thinking on what he had to do. He got up
early in the morning, and went to the river-side, where he filled his
pockets full of small white pebbles, and then returned home.
They all went abroad, but Little Thumb never told his brothers one
syllable of what he knew. They went into a very thick forest, where they
could not see one another at ten paces distance. The fagot-maker began
to cut wood, and the children to gather up the sticks to make fagots.
Their father and mother, seeing them busy at their work, got away from
them insensibly, and ran away from them all at once, along a by-way
through the winding bushes.
When the children saw they were left alone, they began to cry as loud as
they could. Little Thumb let them cry on, knowing very well how to get
home again, for, as he came, he took care to drop all along the way the
little white pebbles he had in his pockets. Then he said to them:
“Be not afraid, brothers; father and mother have left us here, but I
will lead you home again, only follow me.”
They did so, and he brought them home by the very same way they came
into the forest. They dared not go in, but sat themselves down at the
door, listening to what their father and mother were saying.
The very moment the fagot-maker and his wife reached home the lord of
the manor sent them ten crowns, which he had owed them a long while, and
which they never expected. This gave them new life, for the poor people
were almost famished. The fagot-maker sent his wife immediately to the
butcher’s. As it was a long while since they had eaten a bit, she bought
thrice as much meat as would sup two people. When they had eaten, the
woman said:
“Alas! where are now our poor children? they would make a good feast of
what we have left here; but it was you, William, who had a mind to lose
them: I told you we should repent of it. What are they now doing in the
forest? Alas! dear God, the wolves have perhaps already eaten them up;
thou art very inhuman thus to have lost thy children.”
The fagot-maker grew at last quite out of patience, for she repeated it
above twenty times, that they should repent of it, and that she was in
the right of it for so saying. He threatened to beat her if she did not
hold her tongue. It was not that the fagot-maker was not, perhaps, more
vexed than his wife, but that she teased him, and that he was of the
humor of a great many others, who love wives to speak well, but
think those very importunate who are continually doing so. She was
half-drowned in tears, crying out:
“Alas! where are now my children, my poor children?”
She spoke this so very loud that the children, who were at the gate,
began to cry out all together:
“Here we are! Here we are!”
She ran immediately to open the door, and said, hugging them:
“I am glad to see you, my dear children; you are very hungry and weary;
and my poor Peter, thou art horribly bemired; come in and let me clean
thee.”
Now, you must know that Peter was her eldest son, whom she loved above
all the rest, because he was somewhat carroty, as she herself was. They
sat down to supper, and ate with such a good appetite as pleased both
father and mother, whom they acquainted how frightened they were in
the forest, speaking almost always all together. The good folks were
extremely glad to see their children once more at home, and this joy
continued while the ten crowns lasted; but, when the money was all gone,
they fell again into their former uneasiness, and resolved to lose them
again; and, that they might be the surer of doing it, to carry them to a
much greater distance than before.
They could not talk of this so secretly but they were overheard by
Little Thumb, who made account to get out of this difficulty as well as
the former; but, though he got up very early in the morning to go and
pick up some little pebbles, he was disappointed, for he found the
house-door double-locked, and was at a stand what to do. When their
father had given each of them a piece of bread for their breakfast,
Little Thumb fancied he might make use of this instead of the pebbles by
throwing it in little bits all along the way they should pass; and so he
put the bread in his pocket.
Their father and mother brought them into the thickest and most obscure
part of the forest, when, stealing away into a by-path, they there left
them. Little Thumb was not very uneasy at it, for he thought he could
easily find the way again by means of his bread, which he had scattered
all along as he came; but he was very much surprised when he could not
find so much as one crumb; the birds had come and had eaten it up, every
bit. They were now in great affliction, for the farther they went the
more they were out of their way, and were more and more bewildered in
the forest.
Night now came on, and there arose a terribly high wind, which made them
dreadfully afraid. They fancied they heard on every side of them the
howling of wolves coming to eat them up. They scarce dared to speak or
turn their heads. After this, it rained very hard, which wetted them to
the skin; their feet slipped at every step they took, and they fell into
the mire, whence they got up in a very dirty pickle; their hands were
quite benumbed.
Little Thumb climbed up to the top of a tree, to see if he could
discover anything; and having turned his head about on every side, he
saw at last a glimmering light, like that of a candle, but a long way
from the forest. He came down, and, when upon the ground, he could see
it no more, which grieved him sadly. However, having walked for some
time with his brothers toward that side on which he had seen the light,
he perceived it again as he came out of the wood.
They came at last to the house where this candle was, not without an
abundance of fear: for very often they lost sight of it, which happened
every time they came into a bottom. They knocked at the door, and a good
woman came and opened it; she asked them what they would have.
Little Thumb told her they were poor children who had been lost in the
forest, and desired to lodge there for God’s sake.
The woman, seeing them so very pretty, began to weep, and said to them:
“Alas! poor babies; whither are ye come? Do ye know that this house
belongs to a cruel ogre who eats up little children?”
“Ah! dear madam,” answered Little Thumb (who trembled every joint of
him, as well as his brothers), “what shall we do? To be sure the wolves
of the forest will devour us to-night if you refuse us to lie here; and
so we would rather the gentleman should eat us; and perhaps he may take
pity upon us, especially if you please to beg it of him.”
The Ogre’s wife, who believed she could conceal them from her husband
till morning, let them come in, and brought them to warm themselves at a
very good fire; for there was a whole sheep upon the spit, roasting for
the Ogre’s supper.
As they began to be a little warm they heard three or four great raps at
the door; this was the Ogre, who had come home. Upon this she hid them
under the bed and went to open the door. The Ogre presently asked if
supper was ready and the wine drawn, and then sat himself down to table.
The sheep was as yet all raw and bloody; but he liked it the better for
that. He sniffed about to the right and left, saying:
“I smell fresh meat.”
“What you smell so,” said his wife, “must be the calf which I have just
now killed and flayed.”
“I smell fresh meat, I tell thee once more,” replied the Ogre, looking
crossly at his wife; “and there is something here which I do not
understand.”
As he spoke these words he got up from the table and went directly to
the bed.
“Ah, ah!” said he; “I see then how thou wouldst cheat me, thou cursed
woman; I know not why I do not eat thee up too, but it is well for thee
that thou art a tough old carrion. Here is good game, which comes very
quickly to entertain three ogres of my acquaintance who are to pay me a
visit in a day or two.”
With that he dragged them out from under the bed one by one. The poor
children fell upon their knees, and begged his pardon; but they had to
do with one of the most cruel ogres in the world, who, far from having
any pity on them, had already devoured them with his eyes, and told
his wife they would be delicate eating when tossed up with good
savory sauce. He then took a great knife, and, coming up to these poor
children, whetted it upon a great whet-stone which he held in his left
hand. He had already taken hold of one of them when his wife said to
him:
“Why need you do it now? Is it not time enough to-morrow?”
“Hold your prating,” said the Ogre; “they will eat the tenderer.
“But you have so much meat already,” replied his wife, “you have no
occasion; here are a calf, two sheep, and half a hog.”
“That is true,” said the Ogre; “give them their belly full that they may
not fall away, and put them to bed.”
The good woman was overjoyed at this, and gave them a good supper; but
they were so much afraid they could not eat a bit. As for the Ogre,
he sat down again to drink, being highly pleased that he had got
wherewithal to treat his friends. He drank a dozen glasses more than
ordinary, which got up into his head and obliged him to go to bed.
The Ogre had seven daughters, all little children, and these young
ogresses had all of them very fine complexions, because they used to
eat fresh meat like their father; but they had little gray eyes, quite
round, hooked noses, and very long sharp teeth, standing at a
good distance from each other. They were not as yet over and above
mischievous, but they promised very fair for it, for they had already
bitten little children, that they might suck their blood.
They had been put to bed early, with every one a crown of gold upon her
head. There was in the same chamber a bed of the like bigness, and it
was into this bed the Ogre’s wife put the seven little boys, after which
she went to bed to her husband.
Little Thumb, who had observed that the Ogre’s daughters had crowns of
gold upon their heads, and was afraid lest the Ogre should repent his
not killing them, got up about midnight, and, taking his brothers’
bonnets and his own, went very softly and put them upon the heads of
the seven little ogresses, after having taken off their crowns of gold,
which he put upon his own head and his brothers’, that the Ogre might
take them for his daughters, and his daughters for the little boys whom
he wanted to kill.
All this succeeded according to his desire; for, the Ogre waking about
midnight, and sorry that he deferred to do that till morning which
he might have done over-night, threw himself hastily out of bed, and,
taking his great knife,
“Let us see,” said he, “how our little rogues do, and not make two jobs
of the matter.”
He then went up, groping all the way, into his daughters’ chamber, and,
coming to the bed where the little boys lay, and who were every soul of
them fast asleep, except Little Thumb, who was terribly afraid when
he found the Ogre fumbling about his head, as he had done about his
brothers’, the Ogre, feeling the golden crowns, said:
“I should have made a fine piece of work of it, truly; I find I drank
too much last night.”
Then he went to the bed where the girls lay; and, having found the boys’
little bonnets,
“Ah!” said he, “my merry lads, are you there? Let us work as we ought.”
And saying these words, without more ado, he cut the throats of all his
seven daughters.
Well pleased with what he had done, he went to bed again to his wife.