The Fairy Book | Page 8

soon as Hop-o'-my-thumb heard him snore, he
awoke his brothers, and told them to put on their clothes quickly, and
follow him. They stole down softly into the garden, and then jumped
from the wall into the road: they ran as fast as their legs could carry
them, but were so much afraid all the while, that they hardly knew
which way to take. When the Ogre waked in the morning, he said to his
wife, grinning, "My dear, go and dress the young rogues I saw last
night."
The wife was quite surprised at hearing her husband speak so kindly,
and did not dream of the real meaning of his words. She supposed he
wanted her to help them to put on their clothes; so she went upstairs,
and the first thing she saw was her seven daughters with their throats
cut and all over blood. This threw her into a fainting fit. The Ogre was
afraid his wife might be too long in doing what he had set her about, so
he went himself to help her; but he was as much shocked as she had
been at the dreadful sight of his bleeding children. "Ah! what have I
done?" he cried; "but the little rascals shall pay for it, I warrant them."
He first threw some water on his wife's face; and, as soon as she came
to herself, he said to her: "Bring me quickly my seven-league boots,
that I may go and catch the little vipers."
The Ogre then put on these boots, and set out with all speed. He strided
over many parts of the country, and at last turned into the very road in
which the poor children were. For they had set off towards the
faggot-maker's cottage, which they had almost reached. They watched
the Ogre stepping from mountain to mountain at one step, and crossing
rivers as if they had been tiny brooks. At this Hop-o'-my-thumb thought
a little what was to be done; and spying a hollow place under a large
rock, he made his brothers get into it. He then crept in himself, but kept
his eye fixed on the Ogre, to see what he would do next.
The Ogre found himself quite weary with the journey he had gone, for
seven-league boots are very tiresome to the person who wears them; so

he now began to think of resting, and happened to sit down on the very
rock where the poor children were hid. As he was so tired, and it was a
very hot day, he fell fast asleep, and soon began to snore so loud, that
the little fellows were terrified.
When Hop-o'-my-thumb saw this he said to his brothers, "Courage, my
lads! never fear! you have nothing to do but to steal away and get home
while the Ogre is fast asleep, and leave me to shift for myself."
The brothers now were very glad to do whatever he told them, and so
they soon came to their father's house. In the mean time
Hop-o'-my-thumb went up to the Ogre softly, pulled off his
seven-league boots very gently, and put them on his own legs: for
though the boots were very large, yet being fairy-boots, they could
make themselves small enough to fit any leg they pleased.
As soon as ever Hop-o'-my-thumb had made sure of the Ogre's
seven-league boots, he went at once to the palace, and offered his
services to carry orders from the king to his army, which was a great
way off, and to bring back the quickest accounts of the battle they were
just at that time fighting with the enemy. In short, he thought he could
be of more use to the king than all his mail coaches, and so should
make his fortune in this manner. He succeeded so well, that in a short
time he made money enough to keep himself, his father, mother, and
six brothers, without the trouble of working, for the rest of their lives.
Having done this, he went back to his father's cottage, where all the
family were delighted to see him again. As the great fame of his boots
had been talked of at court in this time, the king sent for him, and
indeed employed him very often in the greatest affairs of the state, so
that he became one of the richest men in the kingdom.
And now let us see what became of the wicked Ogre. He slept so
soundly that he never discovered the loss of his boots; but having an
evil conscience and bad dreams, he fell in his sleep from the corner of
the rock where Hop-o'-my-thumb and his brothers had left him, and
bruised himself so much from head to foot, that he could not