d not wake till he found
himself in the mouth of the cow, who had taken him up with a mouthful
of hay: "Good lack-a-day!" said he, "how did I manage to tumble into
the mill?" But he soon found out where he really was, and was obliged
to have all his wits about him in order that he might not get between
the cow's teeth, and so be crushed to death. At last she swallowed him
down. "It is rather dark here," said he; "they forgot to build windows
in this room to let the sun in; a candle would be no bad thing."

[Illustration]

Though he made the best of his bad luck, he did not like his quarters
at all; and the worst of it was, that more and more hay was always
coming down, and the space in which he was became smaller and smaller.
At last he cried out as loudly as he could, "Don't bring me any more
hay! Don't bring me any more hay!" The maid happened to be just then
milking the cow, and hearing someone speak and seeing nobody, and
yet being quite sure it was the same voice that she had heard in the
night, she was so much frightened that she fell off her stool and
overset the milk-pail. She ran off as fast as she could to her master,
the parson, and said, "Sir, sir, the cow is talking!" But the parson
said, "Woman, thou art surely mad!" However, he went with her into the
cow-house to see what was the matter. Scarcely had they set their feet
on the threshold when Thumbling called out, "Don't bring me any more
hay!" Then the parson himself was frightened; and thinking the cow was
surely bewitched, ordered that she should be killed directly. So the
cow was killed, and the part in which Thumbling lay was thrown away.

Thumbling soon set himself to work to get out, which was not a very
easy task; but at last, just as he had made room to get his head
through, a new misfortune befell him: a hungry wolf passed by
and swallowed Thumbling and all, at a single gulp, and ran away.
Thumbling, however, was not disheartened; and thinking the wolf would
not dislike having some chat with him as he was going along, he called
out, "My good friend, I can show you a famous treat." "Where's that?"
said the wolf. "In such and such a house," said Thumbling, describing
his father's house, "you can crawl through the drain into the kitchen,
and there you will find cakes, ham, beef, and everything your heart
can desire." The wolf did not want to be asked twice; so that very
night he went to the house and crawled through the drain into the
kitchen, an