out, he had not rested long before he fell asleep, and began
to snore so dreadfully, that the poor children were not less frightened
than they were when he took up the great knife to cut their throats.

Little Thumbling was not so much alarmed, and told his brothers to run
quickly into the house while the ogre was sound asleep, and not to be
uneasy about him. They took his advice and soon reached home. Little
Thumbling then going up to the ogre, gently pulled off his boots, and
put them on himself. The boots were very large and very long; but as
they were enchanted boots, they had the quality of becoming larger or
smaller according to the leg of the person who wore them, so that they
fitted him as if they had been made for him. He went straight to the
ogre's house, where he found the wife weeping over her murdered
daughters. "Your husband," said Little Thumbling to her, "is in great
danger, for he has been seized by a band of robbers, who have sworn to
kill him if he does not give them all his gold and silver. Just as they
had their daggers at his throat, he saw me, and begged me to come and
tell you what had happened to him, and sent word that you were to give
me all his ready money, without keeping back any of it, as otherwise
they will kill him without mercy. As time pressed, he insisted on my
taking his seven-league boots, which you see I have on, in order that I
might make haste, and also that you might be sure I was not imposing
upon you."

The good woman, very much alarmed, immediately gave him all the money
she could find, for the ogre was not a bad husband to her, although he
ate little children. Little Thumbling, thus laden with all the ogre's
wealth, hastened back to his father's house, where he was received with
great joy.

There are many persons who differ in their account of this part of the
story, and who pretend that Little Thumbling never stole the ogre's
money, and that he really only took the seven-league boots, as he felt
no scruple in doing this, seeing that the ogre used them expressly for
running after little children. These people assert that they have heard
it from good authority, and that they have eaten and drunk in the
woodcutter's house. They assure us that when Little Thumbling had put on
the ogre's boots, he went to Court, where he knew they were in much
trouble about an army which was within two hundred leagues of them, and
were anxious to hear the result of a battle that had been fough