ldren!" cried he. "Your dear mother has come home, and brought you
each something from the wood."

"First show us your paws," said the kids, "so that we may know if you
are really our mother or not."

And he put up his paws against the window, and when they saw that they
were white, all seemed right, and they opened the door; and when he was
inside they saw it was the wolf, and they were terrified and tried to
hide themselves. One ran under the table, the second got into the bed,
the third into the oven, the fourth in the kitchen, the fifth in the
cupboard, the sixth under the sink, the seventh in the clock-case. But
the wolf found them all, and gave them short shrift; one after the other
he swallowed down, all but the youngest, who was hid in the clock-case.
And so the wolf, having got what he wanted, strolled forth into the
green meadows, and laying himself down under a tree, he fell asleep.

Not long after, the mother goat came back from the wood; and, oh! what a
sight met her eyes! the door was standing wide open, table, chairs, and
stools, all thrown about, dishes broken, quilt and pillows torn off the
bed. She sought her children, they were nowhere to be found. She called
to each of them by name, but nobody answered, until she came to the name
of the youngest.

"Here I am, mother," a little voice cried, "here, in the clock-case."

And so she helped him out, and heard how the wolf had come, and eaten
all the rest. And you may think how she cried for the loss of her dear
children. At last in her grief she wandered out of doors, and the
youngest kid with her; and when they came into the meadow, there they
saw the wolf lying under a tree, and snoring so that the branches shook.
The mother goat looked at him carefully on all sides and she noticed how
something inside his body was moving and struggling.

"Dear me!" thought she, "can it be that my poor children that he
devoured for his evening meal are still alive?" And she sent the little
kid back to the house for a pair of shears, and needle, and thread. Then
she cut the wolf's body open, and no sooner had she made one snip than
out came the head of one of the kids, and then another snip, and then
one after the other the six little kids all jumped out alive and well,
for in his greediness the rogue had swallowed them down whole. How
delightful this was! so they comforted their dear mother and hopped
about like tailors at a wedding.

"Now fetch some good hard sto