The Juniper Tree and Other Tales Read Online Free Page B

mother.”
    So he put his paws up on the window sill, and when the little kids saw that they were white, they thought that everything he said was true, and they opened the door. But it was not their mother but the wolf who came in. They were terrified, and tried to hide. One of them got under the table, the second jumped into bed, the third into the stove, the fourth ran into the kitchen, the fifth hid in the wardrobe, the sixth hid under the china wash basin and the seventh climbed into the case of the grandfather clock standing against the wall. However, the wolf found them all, and without more ado he swallowed them one by one. All except for the seventh, who was hiding in the case of the clock—he didn’t find the seventh and youngest little kid. When the wolf had satisfied his appetite, he strolled away, lay down under a tree in the green meadow outside the house and fell fast asleep.
    Not long after that, the old nanny-goat came home from the forest. What a shocking sight met her eyes! The front door of the house was wide open, the table, the chairs and the benches were all thrown around the room, the china wash basin was broken to pieces, the blankets and pillows had been pulled off the bed. She looked for her children, but they were nowhere to be found. She called them all by their names, one by one, and at last, when she came to the youngest, a little voice replied, “Mother, dear Mother, here I am in the case of the clock standing against the wall.” So she let the kidout of the clock case, and he told her how the wolf had come and eaten up all the others. You can imagine how she grieved, shedding tears for her poor children.
    At last, in her sorrow, she went out of the house, and the youngest little kid went with her. When she came to the meadow, there was the wolf lying under the tree, snoring loud enough to make the branches tremble. She looked at him from all sides, and saw something moving and kicking about in his swollen belly. Oh God, she thought, can my poor children still be alive in there after the wolf swallowed them for his supper? She told the youngest kid to run home and fetch her scissors, needle and thread. Then she slit the monster’s belly open, and as soon as she had made the first cut, one of the little kids put his head out, and as she went on snipping and snipping all six jumped out one by one. They were alive, and hadn’t even suffered any harm, because in his greed the monster had swallowed them whole. How happy they all were! They hugged their dear mother, and hopped and skipped about like a tailor on his wedding day.
    However, the old nanny-goat said, “Off you go now and look for some lumps of rock. We’ll fill that godless animal’s belly with stones while he lies there sleeping.” So her seven little kids made haste to bring stones along, and they put as many as they could inside the wolf ’s belly. Then the old nanny-goat sewed it up again asfast as she could, so that he didn’t notice anything and didn’t even move.
    When the wolf awoke at last he stood up, and thought he would go to a well and drink. But when he began to walk, moving backwards and forwards, the stones clashed together in his belly and rattled about. Then the wolf said:
    What’s rumbling in there
    Like a lot of old crocks?
    I thought I ate kids,
    But it sounds just like rocks.
    And when he came to the well and bent over it to drink, the weight of the heavy stones dragged him in, and he drowned miserably. When the seven little kids saw that, they ran up, crying out, “The wolf is dead, the wolf is dead!” while they and their mother danced around the well for joy.

LITTLE BROTHER AND LITTLE SISTER
    L ITTLE BROTHER TOOK his Little Sister’s hand and said, “Since Mother died, we haven’t had a single hour of happiness. Our stepmother beats us every day, and when we go up to her she kicks us away. We’re fed on hard, left-over breadcrusts, and the little dog under the table eats better than we do,