d low;

"And you are the wolf--so go away,
You can't get in, if you try all day."
He laughed to himself to hear them talk,
And wished he had some chalk,

To smooth his voice to a tone like geese;
So he went to the merchant's and bought a piece,
And hurried back, and rapped once more.
"Open, open the door,

"I am your mother, dears," he said.
But up on the window ledge he laid,
In a careless way, his great black paw,
And this the goslings saw.

"No, no," they called, "that will not do,
Our mother has not black hands like you;
For you are the wolf, so go away,
You can't get in to-day."

The baffled wolf to the old mill ran,
And whined to the busy miller man:
"I love to hear the sound of the wheel
And to smell the corn and meal."

The miller was pleased, and said "All right;
Would you like your cap and jacket white?"
At that he opened a flour bin
And playfully dipped him in.

He floundered and sneezed a while, then, lo,
He crept out white as a wolf of snow.
"If chalk and flour can make me sweet,"
He said, "then I'm complete."

[Illustration]

For the third time back to the house he went,
And looked and spoke so different,
That when he rapped, and "Open!" cried,
The little ones replied,

"If you show us nice clean feet, we will."
And straightway, there on the window-sill
His paws were laid, with dusty meal
Powdered from toe to heel.

[Illustration]

Yes, they were white! So they let him in,
And he gobbled them all up, feathers and skin!
Gobbled the whole, as if 'twere fun,
Except the littlest one.

An old clock stood there, tick, tick, tick,
And into that he had hopped so quick
The wolf saw nothing, and fancied even
He'd eaten all the seven.

But six were enough to satisfy;
So out he strolled on the grass to lie.
And when the gray goose presently
Came home--what did she see?

Alas, the house door open wide,
But no little yellow flock inside;
The beds and pillows thrown about;
The fire all gone out;

The chairs and tables overset;
The wash-tub spilled, and the floor all wet;
And here and there in cinders black,
The great wolf's ugly track.

She called out tenderly every name,
But never a voice in answer came,
Till a little frightened, broad-billed face
Peered out of the clock-case.

This gosling told his tale with grief,
And the