The Wolf and the 7 little Kids
by the Grimm Brothers
THERE WAS once on 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 comes 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 cried, "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, "you are not our mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but your voice
is rough; you are the
wolf!" The wolf went away to a shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump
of chalk, ate this and
made his voice soft with it.
Then 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 you: you are
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 some
one," and refused;
but the wolf said, "If you will not do it, I will devour you." Then the miller
was afraid, and made his
paws white for him.
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 your paws that we
may know if you are 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 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 body. "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 made one cut, than one little kid
thrust its head out,
and when she had 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! Then they embraced their dear mother, and jumped
like a tailor 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
to 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 'twas 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. - -
THE END
