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Snowdrop and Other Tales

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<h2>The Wolf and the Seven Kids</h2> THERE was once an old Nanny-goat who had seven Kids, and she was just as fond of them as a mother of her children. One day she was going into the woods to fetch some food for them, so she called them all up to her, and said— ‘My dear children, I am going out into the woods. Beware of the Wolf! If once he gets into the house, he will eat you up, skin, and hair, and all. The rascal often disguises himself, but you will know him by his rough voice and his black feet.’ The Kids said, ‘Oh, we will be very careful, dear mother. You may be quite happy about us.’ Bleating tenderly, the old Goat went off to her work. Before long, some one knocked at the door, and cried— ‘Open the door, dear children! Your mother has come back and brought something for each of you.’ But the Kids knew quite well by the voice that it was the Wolf. ‘We won’t open the door,’ they cried. ‘You are not our mother. She has a soft gentle voice; but yours is rough, and we are quite sure that you are the Wolf.’ So he went away to a shop and bought a lump of chalk, which he ate, and it made his voice quite soft. He went back, knocked at the door again, and cried— ‘Open the door, dear children. Your mother has come back and brought something for each of you.’ But the Wolf had put one of his paws on the window sill, where the Kids saw it, and cried— ‘We won’t open the door. Our mother has not got a black foot as you have; you are the Wolf.’ Then the Wolf ran to a Baker, and said, ‘I have bruised my foot; please put some dough on it.’ And when the Baker had put some dough on his foot, he ran to the Miller and said, ‘Strew some flour on my foot.’ The Miller thought, ‘The old Wolf is going to take somebody in,’ and refused. But the Wolf said, ‘If you don’t do it, I will eat you up.’ So the Miller was frightened, and whitened his paws. People are like that, you know. Now the wretch went for the third time to the door, and knocked, and said— ‘Open the door, children. Your dear mother has come home, and has brought something for each of you out of the wood.’ The Kids cried, ‘Show us your feet first, that we may be sure you are our mother.’ He put his paws on the window sill, and when they saw that they were white, they believed all he said, and opened the door. Alas! It was the Wolf who walked in. They were terrified, and tried to hide themselves. One ran under the table, the second jumped into bed, the third into the oven, the fourth ran into the kitchen, the fifth got into the cupboard, the sixth into the wash-tub, and the seventh hid in the tall clock-case. But the Wolf found them all but one, and made short work of them. He swallowed one after the other, except the youngest one in the clock-case, whom he did not find. When he had satisfied his appetite, he took himself off, and lay down in a meadow outside, where he soon fell asleep. Not long after the old Nanny-goat came back from the woods. Oh! what a terrible sight met her eyes! The house door was wide open, table, chairs, and benches were overturned, the washing bowl was smashed to atoms, the covers and pillows torn from the bed. She searched all over the house for her children, but nowhere were they to be found. She called them by name, one by one, but no one answered. At last, when she came to the youngest, a tiny voice cried: ‘I am here, dear mother, hidden in the clock-case.’ She brought him out, and he told her that the Wolf had come and devoured all the others. You may imagine how she wept over her children. At last, in her grief, she went out, and the youngest Kid ran by her side. When they went into the meadow, there lay the Wolf under a tree, making the branches shake with his snores. They examined him from every side, and they could plainly see movements within his distended body. ‘Ah, heavens!’ thought the Goat, ‘is it possible that my poor children whom he ate for his supper, should be still alive?’ She sent the Kid running to the house to fetch scissors, needles, and thread. Then she cut a hole in the monster’s side, and, hardly had she begun, when a Kid popped out its head, and as soon as the hole was big enough, all six jumped out, one after the other, all alive, and without having suffered the least injury, for, in his greed, the monster had swallowed them whole. You may imagine the mother’s joy. She hugged them, and skipped about like a tailor on his wedding day. At last she said: ‘Go and fetch some big stones, children, and we will fill up the brute’s body while he is asleep.’ Then the seven Kids brought a lot of stones, as fast as they could carry them, and stuffed the Wolf with them till he could hold no more. The old mother quickly sewed him up, without his having noticed anything, or even moved. At last, when the Wolf had had his sleep out, he got up, and, as the stones made him feel very thirsty, he wanted to go to a spring to drink. But as soon as he moved the stones began to roll about and rattle inside him. Then he cried— <div class="cpoem"> <div class="poem"> <div class="stanza"> ‘What’s the rumbling and tumbling That sets my stomach grumbling? I thought ’twas six Kids, flesh and bones, Now find it’s nought but rolling stones.’ </div> </div></div> <div class="figcenter ipadbase" style="width: 422px;"> <ANTIMG src="images/pl06.jpg" width-obs="422" height-obs="520" alt="The Seven Kids and their mother capered and danced round the spring in their joy." /></div> When he reached the spring, and stooped over the water to drink, the heavy stones dragged him down, and he was drowned miserably. When the seven Kids saw what had happened, they came running up, and cried aloud—‘The Wolf is dead, the Wolf is dead!’ and they and their mother capered and danced round the spring in their joy. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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