The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids
Mother goat leaves her seven babies home alone… will they be smart enough to fool a visiting wolf?
This is a classic fairy tale and may contain violence. We encourage parents to read ahead if their child is sensitive to such topics.
Once upon a time, there was an old goat who had seven little children and loved them with all the love a mother has for her children.
One day, she wanted to go into the forest for food. So she called all seven people and said:
‘Dear children, I must go to the forest. Beware of wolves; If they enter, they will devour all of you – skin, hair, and everything. The wretch often disguises himself, but you will recognize him at once by his rough voice and his black legs.’
The children said: ‘Mom, we will take good care of ourselves; you can leave without any worries.’
Then, the older woman bleated and walked away with a light heart.
Not long after, someone knocked on the door and called:
‘Open the door, dear children; Your mother is here and has brought something for each of you.”
But the children knew it was a wolf because of the rough voice.
‘We will not open the door,’ they cried, ‘you are not our mother. She has a soft, easy-to-listen voice, but yours is rough; you are a wolf!’
Then the wolf went to a vendor and bought himself a large piece of chalk, ate it, and made his voice soft. Then he returned, knocked on the door, and called:
‘Open the door, dear children; your mother is here and has brought something for each of you.’
But the wolf placed his black paws on the window, and the children saw them and cried out:
‘We won’t open the door; our mother doesn’t have black paws like you: you’re a wolf!’
Then the wolf ran to the baker and said:
‘My feet hurt; please rub some powder on them.’
When the baker had finished rubbing his feet, he ran to the miller and said:
‘Sprinkle white powder on my feet.’
The miller thought to himself: ‘The wolf wants to trick someone’ and refused, but the wolf said:
‘If you don’t do it, I will devour you.’
Then the miller got scared and whitened its feet. Indeed, this is the path of humanity.
So now that bastard went to the door for the third time, knocked, and said:
‘Open the door for me, children; your dear little mother has come home and brought each of you something from the forest.’
The children cried out:
‘First, show us your feet to know whether you are our dear little mother.’
He then stuck his feet through the window, and when the children saw they were white, they believed everything he said was true and opened the door. But who will enter here but the wolf?
They are scared and want to hide. One went under the table, the second went under the bed, the third went into the kitchen, the fourth went into the kitchen, the fifth went into the cupboard, the sixth went under the sink, and the seventh went into the clock box. But the wolf found them all and used no grand ceremony; One by one, he swallowed them down his throat. The youngest person in the watch box was the only one he couldn’t find.
When the wolf had satisfied its appetite, it left, lay under a tree in the green meadow outside, and began to sleep. Not long after, the old goat returned home from the forest. Ah! What sight did she see there? The house door opens wide. Tables and chairs were thrown down; washing basins were broken; blankets and pillows were pulled off the bed. She searched for her children, but they were nowhere to be found. She called them one by one by name, but no one answered. Finally, when he reached the youngest child, a small voice cried out:
‘Dear mother, I am in the watch box.’
She took the child outside, and he told her that the wolf had come and eaten all the others. Then, you can imagine how she cried for her poor children.
Finally, in her grief, she went out, and her youngest child ran after her. When they reached the meadow, the wolf lay beside a tree and snored so loudly that the branches shook. She looked at him in all directions and saw something moving and struggling in his full stomach.
“Oh my God,” she said, “can my poor children that he devoured for dinner still be alive?”
Then, the child had to run home to get scissors, needles, and thread, and the goat cut open the monster’s belly. Before she could make a single cut, a child stuck his head out, and as she cut further, all six people jumped out one by one, all alive and unharmed; because of his greed, the monster swallowed them whole.
So fun! They hugged their beloved mother and danced like a seamstress at his wedding. However, my mother said:
‘Now find the big stones, and we will stuff them into the cruel beast’s belly while still sleeping.’
Then, the seven children dragged the stones there faster and stuffed as many into their stomachs as possible. The mother quickly stitched her child’s wound, leaving the child unconscious and unable to move.
When the wolf had had enough sleep, he stood up, and because the stones in his stomach made him thirsty, he wanted to go to the well to drink water. But when he began to walk and move, the stones in his stomach collided and rattled. Then he cried out:
‘What rumbles and tumbles
Against my poor bones?
I thought ‘twas six kids,
But it feels like big stones.’
When he approached the well and bent down to drink water, the heavy rocks caused him to fall and tragically drown.
Seven children saw this and immediately ran to the spot and shouted:
‘The wolf is dead! The wolf is dead!’ and danced merrily around the well with their mother.
