{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/grimm/ht03.htm","path":"neu/grimm/ht03.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/grimm/ht03.htm","text":"The Wolf And The Seven Little Kids\nThere was once upon a time an old goat who had seven little kids, and\nloved them with all the love of a mother for her children. One day she wanted\nto go into the forest and fetch some food. So she called all seven to her and\nsaid, \"Dear children, I have to go into the forest, be on your guard against\nthe wolf; if he comes in, he will devour you all - skin, hair and all. The\nwretch often disguises himself, but you will know him at once by his rough\nvoice and his black feet.\" The kids said, \"Dear mother, we will take good care\nof ourselves; you may go away without any anxiety.\" Then the old one bleated,\nand went on her way with an easy mind.\nIt was not long before some one knocked at the house-door and cried,\n\"Open the door, dear children; your mother is here, and has brought something\nback with her for each of you.\" But the little kids knew that it was the wolf,\nby the rough voice; \"We will not open the door,\" cried they, \"thou art not our\nmother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but thy voice is rough; thou art the\nwolf!\" Then the wolf went away to a shopkeeper and brought himself a great\nlump of chalk, ate this and made his voice soft with it. Then he came back,\nknocked at the door of the house, and cried, \"Open the door, dear children,\nyour mother is here and has brought something back with her for each of you.\"\nBut the wolf had laid his black paws against the window, and the children saw\nthem and cried, \"We will not open the door, our mother has not black feet like\nthee: thou art the wolf!\" Then the wolf ran to a baker and said, \"I have hurt\nmy feet, rub some dough over them for me.\" And when the baker had rubbed his\nfeet over, he ran to the miller and said, \"Strew some white meal over my feet\nfor me.\" The miller thought to himself, \"The wolf wants to deceive some one,\"\nand refused; but the wolf said, \"If thou wilt not do it, I will devour thee.\"\nThen the miller was afraid, and made his paws white for him. Truly men are\nlike that.\nSo now the wretch went for the third time to the house-door, knocked at\nit and said, \"Open the door for me, children, your dear little mother has come\nhome, and has brought every one of you something back from the forest with\nher.\" The little kids cried, \"First show us thy paws that we may know if thou\nart our dear little mother.\" Then he put his paws in through the window, and\nwhen the kids saw that they were white, they believed that all he said was\ntrue, and opened the door. But who should come in but the wolf! They were\nterrified and wanted to hide themselves. One sprang under the table, the\nsecond into the bed, the third into the stove, the fourth into the kitchen,\nthe fifth into the cupboard, the sixth under the washing-bowl, and the\nseventh into the clock-case. But the wolf found them all, and used no great\nceremony; one after the other he swallowed them down his throat. The youngest\nin the clock-case was the only one he did not find. When the wolf had\nsatisfied his appetite he took himself off, laid himself down under a tree in\nthe green meadow outside, and began to sleep. Soon afterwards the old goat\ncame home again from the forest! Ah! what a sight she saw there! The house -\ndoor stood wide open. The table, chairs, and benches were thrown down, the\nwashing-bowl lay broken to pieces, and the quilts and pillows were pulled\noff the bed. She sought her children, but they were nowhere to be found. She\ncalled them one after another by name, but no one answered. At last, when she\ncame to the youngest, a soft voice cried, \"Dear mother, I am in the clock -\ncase.\" She took the kid out, and it told her that the wolf had come and had\neaten all the others. Then you may imagine how she wept over her poor\nchildren.\nAt length in her grief she went out, and the youngest kid ran with her.\nWhen they came to the meadow, there lay the wolf by the tree and snored so\nloud that the branches shook. She looked at him on every side and saw that\nsomething was moving and struggling in his gorged body. \"Ah, heavens,\" said\nshe, \"is it possible that my poor children whom he has swallowed down for his\nsupper, can be still alive?\" Then the kid had to run home and fetch scissors,\nand a needle and thread, and the goat cut open the monster's stomach, and\nhardly had she made one cut, than one little kid thrust its head out, and when\nshe had cut farther, all six sprang out one after another, and were all still\nalive, and had suffered no injury whatever, for in his greediness the monster\nhad swallowed them down whole. What rejoicing there was! Then they embraced\ntheir dear mother, and jumped like a tailor at his wedding. The mother,\nhowever, said, \"Now go and look for some big stones, and we will fill the\nwicked beast's stomach with them while he is still asleep.\" Then the seven\nkids dragged the stones thither with all speed, and put as many of them into\nhis stomach as they could get in; and the mother sewed him up again in the\ngreatest haste, so that he was not aware of anything and never once stirred.\nWhen the wolf at length had had his sleep out, he got on his legs, and as\nthe stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he wanted to go to a well to\ndrink. But when he began to walk and to move about, the stones in his stomach\nknocked against each other and rattled. Then cried he,\n\"What rumbles and tumbles\nAgainst my poor bones?\nI thought 'twas six kids,\nBut it's naught but big stones.\"\nAnd when he got to the well and stooped over the water and was just about\nto drink, the heavy stones made him fall in and there was no help, but he had\nto drown miserably. When the seven kids saw that, they came running to the\nspot and cried aloud, \"The wolf is dead! The wolf is dead!\" and danced for joy\nround about the well with their mother.","title":"The Wolf And The Seven Little Kids","type":"page"}