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There was
once upon 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 come 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 called,
“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, “thou art not our mother. She has a soft, pleasant voice, but thy
voice is rough; thou art the wolf!” Then the wolf went away to a
shopkeeper and bought himself a great lump of chalk, ate this and made
his voice soft with it. The 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
thee; thou art 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 someone,” and refused; but the wolf said, “If thou wilt
not do it, I will devour thee.” Then the miller was afraid, and made his
paws white for him. Truly men are like that.
So 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 thy paws that we
may know if thou art 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, who was 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 belly. “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 make one cut, than one
little kid thrust its head out, and when she 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! They embraced their dear mother,
and jumped like a sailor 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 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 ‘t was 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.
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