The Seven-League Boots (14)

The Seven-League Boots (14)

It was just as Thumbkin feared; the ogre woke up at midnight and regretted not butchering the lads the evening before.

So he jumped out of bed and took up his huge knife.

"Let us see how our little fools are doing, " he said to himself.

Without lighting a candle, the ogre groped his way upstairs in the dark to his daughter' room and approached the bed in which the little boys were sleeping.

They were all fast asleep except for Thumbkin, who was very frightened when he felt the ogre's hand over his head.

The ogre felt all the golden crowns.
" Dear me, " he said. " This will never do. This is my daughters' bed. "

He then went to the other bed and felt the boys' little caps.

" Ah, there they are, " he said, " Our lovely lads ! Let's do the job properly now. "

Having said this, he cut the throats of his seven daughters thinking it was the boys.

Then, happy at a job well done, he went back to bed.

(14/20)