What rejoicing there was!
Then they embraced their dear mother, and jumped like a tailor at
his wedding. The mother, however, said, "Now go and look for some big
stones, and we will fill the wicked beast's stomach with them while he
is still asleep." Then the seven kids dragged the stones thither with
all speed, and put as many of them into his stomach as they could get
in; and the mother sewed him up again in the greatest haste, so that
he was not aware of anything, and never once stirred.
When the wolf at length had had his sleep out, he got on his legs,
and, as the stones in his stomach made him very thirsty, he wanted to
go to a well to drink. But when he began to walk and to move about,
the stones in his stomach knocked against one another and rattled.
Then cried he--
"What rumbles and tumbles
Against my poor bones?
I thought 'twas six kids,
But it's naught but big stones."
And when he got to the well and stooped over the water and was just
about to drink, the heavy stones made him fall in and there was no
help, but he had to drown miserably. When the seven kids saw that,
they came running to the spot, and cried aloud, "The wolf is dead!
The wolf is dead!" and danced for joy round about the well with their
mother.
* * * * *
RAPUNZEL
There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for
a child.
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