GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES - online book

130 Fairy Stories Adapted & Arranged for young people

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THUMBLING S TRA VELS.
297
out with all his strength: " Don't cut too deep ! don't cut too deep ! I am just under." But the man did not hear, because of the noise made by the chopping-knife. Now was poor little Thumbling in great trouble and danger, but the danger made him sprightly. He jumped aside and between the chopping knives so quickly, and nimbly, that he got no hurt, and came off with a whole skin.
But jump about as he might he could not save himself from being mixed with the sausage-meat and forced into the skin where he was obliged to remain for a long time. For the sausages were hung in the chimney to be smoked, as they were not required till winter.
At last a day came on which sausages were wanted for some guests at the hotel, and when the landlord's wife took them down to divide them, Thumbling kept himself carefully out of the way of her knife, for if he had stretched out his neck his head most certainly would have been cut off. But he managed to escape when the opening was made at the end of the sausage without being hurt, and no sooner did he breathe the fresh air, than he sprung out again to freedom.
It was not likely he would wish to remain at a house where he had been so badly served, and soon, therefore, started again on his travels, and returned home to his father.
" I have brought you a beautiful piece of gold," he said; " as much as I could carry," and he offered him the kreutzer.
" If that is all you have gained by your travels you might as well have remained at home," replied his father.
A man once had three sons, the youngest of whom was considered very silly, and everybody used to mock him and make fun of him. The eldest son, who was a woodcutter, was often sent by his father to cut wood in the forest, and before he left home, his mother would prepare beautiful pancakes and a bottle of wine for him to take with him to eat and drink while he was at work.
One day, just as he entered the forest, he met a grey old man