he did not hold her tongue.

It was not that the wood-cutter was less grieved than his wife, but she
browbeat him, and he was of the same opinion as many other people, who
like a woman to have the knack of saying the right thing, but not the
trick of being always in the right.

'Alas!' cried the wood-cutter's wife, bursting into tears, 'where are
now my children, my poor children?'

She said it once so loud that the children at the door heard it plainly.
Together they all called out:

'Here we are! Here we are!'

She rushed to open the door for them, and exclaimed, as she embraced
them:

'How glad I am to see you again, dear children! You must be very tired
and very hungry. And you, Peterkin, how muddy you are--come and let me
wash you!'

This Peterkin was her eldest son. She loved him more than all the others
because he was inclined to be red-headed, and she herself was rather
red.

They sat down at the table and ate with an appetite which it did their
parents good to see. They all talked at once, as they recounted the
fears they had felt in the forest.

The good souls were delighted to have their children with them again,
and the pleasure continued as long as the ten crowns lasted. But when
the money was all spent they relapsed into their former sadness. They
again resolved to lose the children, and to lead them much further away
than they had done the first time, so as to do the job thoroughly. But
though they were careful not to speak openly about it, their
conversation did not escape little Tom Thumb, who made up his mind to
get out of the situation as he had done on the former occasion.

But though he got up early to go and collect his little stones, he found
the door of the house doubly locked, and he could not carry out his
plan.

He could not think what to do until the wood-cutter's wife gave them
each a piece of bread for breakfast. Then it occurred to him to use the
bread in place of the stones, by throwing crumbs along the path which
they took, and he tucked it tight in his pocket.

Their parents led them into the thickest and darkest part of the forest,
and as soon as they were there slipped away by a side-path and left
them. This did not much trouble little Tom Thumb, for he believed he
could easily find the way back by means of the bread which he had
scattered wherever he walked. But to his dismay he could not discover a
single crumb. The birds had come along and eaten it all.

They were