The Fairy Book | Page 7

Wretch!
thou art old and tough thyself, or else I would eat thee up too! But
come, come, this is lucky enough; for the brats will make a nice dish
for three Ogres, who are my particular friends, and who are to dine with
me to-morrow."
He then drew them out one by one from under the bed. The poor
children fell on their knees and begged his pardon as humbly as they
could; but this Ogre was the most cruel of all Ogres, and instead of
feeling any pity, he only began to think how sweet and tender their
flesh would be; so he told his wife they would be nice morsels, if she
served them up with plenty of sauce. He then fetched a large knife, and
began to sharpen it on a long whetstone that he held in his left hand;
and all the while he came nearer and nearer to the bed. The Ogre took
up one of the children, and was going to set about cutting him to pieces;
but his wife said to him, "What in the world makes you take the trouble
of killing them to-night? Will it not be time enough to-morrow
morning?"
"Hold your prating," replied the Ogre; "they will grow tender by being
kept a little while after they are killed."
"But," said his wife, "you have got so much meat in the house already;
here is a calf, two sheep and half a pig."
"True," said the Ogre, "so give them all a good supper, that they may
not get lean, and then send them to bed."
The good creature was quite glad at this. She gave them plenty for their
supper, but the poor children were so terrified that they could not eat a
bit.
The Ogre sat down to his wine, very much pleased with the thought of

giving his friends such a dainty dish: this made him drink rather more
than common, and he was soon obliged to go to bed himself. Now the
Ogre had seven daughters, who were all very young like
Hop-o'-my-thumb and his brothers. These young Ogresses had fair
skins, because they fed on raw meat like their father; but they had small
grey eyes, quite round, and sunk in their heads, hooked noses, wide
mouths, and very long sharp teeth standing a great way off each other.
They were too young as yet to do much mischief; but they showed that
if they lived to be as old as their father, they would grow quite as cruel
as he was, for they took pleasure already in biting young children, and
sucking their blood. The Ogresses had been put to bed very early that
night; they were all in one bed, which was very large, and every one of
them had a crown of gold on her head. There was another bed of the
same size in the room, and in this the Ogre's wife put the seven little
boys, and then went to bed herself along with her husband.
Now Hop-o'-my-thumb was afraid that the Ogre would wake in the
night and kill him and his brothers while they were asleep. So he got
out of bed in the middle of the night as softly as he could, took off all
his brothers' nightcaps and his own, and crept with them to the bed that
the Ogre's daughters were in: he then took off their crowns, and put the
nightcaps on their heads instead: next he put the crowns on his brothers'
heads and his own, and got into bed again; expecting, after this, that, if
the Ogre should come, he would take him and his brothers for his own
children. Everything turned out as he wished. The Ogre waked soon
after midnight, and began to be very sorry that he had put off killing the
boys till the morning: so he jumped out of bed, and took hold of his
large knife. "Let us see," said he, "what the young rogues are about,
and do the business at once!" He then walked softly to the room where
they all slept, and went up to the bed the boys were in, who were all
asleep except Hop-o'-my-thumb. He touched their heads one at a time,
and feeling the crowns of gold, said to himself, "Oh, oh! I had like to
have made such a mistake. I must have drunk too much wine last
night."
He went next to the bed that his own little Ogresses were in, and when
he felt the nightcaps, he said, "Ah! here you are, my lads:" and so in a

moment he cut the throats of all his daughters.
He was very much pleased when he had done this, and then went back
to his own bed. As