some little pebbles, he was disappointed, for he found the
house-door double-locked, and was at a stand what to do. When their
father had given each of them a piece of bread for their breakfast,
Little Thumb fancied he might make use of this instead of the pebbles by
throwing it in little bits all along the way they should pass; and so he
put the bread in his pocket.

Their father and mother brought them into the thickest and most obscure
part of the forest, when, stealing away into a by-path, they there left
them. Little Thumb was not very uneasy at it, for he thought he could
easily find the way again by means of his bread, which he had scattered
all along as he came; but he was very much surprised when he could not
find so much as one crumb; the birds had come and had eaten it up, every
bit. They were now in great affliction, for the farther they went the
more they were out of their way, and were more and more bewildered in
the forest.

Night now came on, and there arose a terribly high wind, which made them
dreadfully afraid. They fancied they heard on every side of them the
howling of wolves coming to eat them up. They scarce dared to speak or
turn their heads. After this, it rained very hard, which wetted them to
the skin; their feet slipped at every step they took, and they fell into
the mire, whence they got up in a very dirty pickle; their hands were
quite benumbed.

Little Thumb climbed up to the top of a tree, to see if he could
discover anything; and having turned his head about on every side, he
saw at last a glimmering light, like that of a candle, but a long way
from the forest. He came down, and, when upon the ground, he could see
it no more, which grieved him sadly. However, having walked for some
time with his brothers toward that side on which he had seen the light,
he perceived it again as he came out of the wood.

They came at last to the house where this candle was, not without an
abundance of fear: for very often they lost sight of it, which happened
every time they came into a bottom. They knocked at the door, and a good
woman came and opened it; she asked them what they would have.

Little Thumb told her they were poor children who had been lost in the
forest, and desired to lodge there for God's sake.

The woman, seeing them so very pretty, began to weep, and said to them:

"Alas! poor babies; whither are ye come? Do ye know that this house
belongs to a cruel ogre who eats up little chi