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, 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.

[Illustration: "The mother sewed him up so quickly again, that he was
none the wiser."]

"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 of 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 stones," said the mother, "and we will fill his
body with them, as he lies asleep."

And so they fetched some in all haste, and put them inside him, and the
mother sewed him up so quickly again that he was none the wiser.

When the wolf at last awoke, and got up, the stones inside him made him
feel very thirsty, and as he was going to the brook to drink, they struck
and rattled one against another. And so he cried out:

"What is this I feel inside me
Knocking hard against my bones?
How should such a thing betide me!
They were kids, and now they're stones."

So he came to the brook, and stooped to drink, but the heavy stones weighed
him down, so he fell over into the water and was drowned. And when the
seven litt