“Alas! where are my children now, my poor children?”

She said this once so very loud that the children, who were at the door, heard her and cried out all together:—­

“Here we are!  Here we are!”

She ran immediately to let them in, and said as she embraced them:—­

“How happy I am to see you again, my dear children; you are very tired and very hungry, and, my poor Peter, you are covered with mud.  Come in and let me clean you.”

Peter was her eldest son, whom she loved more than all the rest, because he was red haired, as she was herself.

They sat down to table, and ate with an appetite which pleased both father and mother, to whom they told how frightened they were in the forest, nearly all speaking at once.  The good folk were delighted to see their children once more, and this joy continued while the ten crowns lasted.  But when the money was all spent, they fell again into their former uneasiness, and resolved to lose their children again.  And, that they might be the surer of doing it, they determined to take them much farther than before.

They could not talk of this so secretly but they were overheard by Little Thumb, who laid his plans to get out of the difficulty as he had done before; but, though he got up very early to go and pick up some little pebbles, he could not, for he found the house-door double-locked.  He did not know what to do.  Their father had given each of them a piece of bread for their breakfast.  He reflected that he might make use of the bread instead of the pebbles, by throwing crumbs all along the way they should pass, and so he stuffed it in his pocket.  Their father and mother led them into the thickest and most obscure part of the forest, and then, stealing away into a by-path, left them there.  Little Thumb was not very much worried about it, for he thought he could easily find the way again by means of his bread, which he had scattered all along as he came; but he was very much surprised when he could not find a single crumb:  the birds had come and eaten them all.

They were now in great trouble; for the more they wandered, the deeper they went into the forest.  Night now fell, and there arose a high wind, which filled them with fear.  They fancied they heard on every side the howling of wolves coming to devour them.  They scarce dared to speak or turn their heads.  Then it rained very hard, which wetted them to the skin.  Their feet slipped at every step, and they fell into the mud, covering their hands with it so that they knew not what to do with them.

Little Thumb climbed up to the top of a tree, to see if he could discover anything.  Looking on every side, he saw at last a glimmering light, like that of a candle, but a long way beyond the forest.  He came down, and, when upon the ground, he could see it no more, which grieved him sadly.  However, having walked for some time with his brothers toward that side on which he had seen the light, he discovered it again as he came out of the wood.