138 HOP-O™-MY-THUMB.

in such a short time; but the truth is, the wife often brought
him two at atime, This made him very poor, for not one of
these boys was old enough to get a living: and what was still
worse, the youngest was a puny little fellow, who hardly ever
spoke a word. Now this, indeed, was a mark of his good sense,
but it made his father and mother suppose him to be silly, and
they thought that at last he would turn out quite a fool. This
boy was the least size ever seen; for when he was born he
was no bigger than a man’s thumb, which made him be chris
tened by the nathe of Hop-o'-my-thumb. The poor child
was the drudge of the whole house, and always bore the blame
of everything that was done wrong. For all this, Hop-o-’'my-
thumb was far more clever than any of his brothers; and
though he spoke but little, he heard and knew more than
people thought. It happened just at this time, that for want of
rain the fields had grown but half as much corn and potatoes as
they used to grow ; so that the faggot-maker and his wife could
not give the boys the food they had before, which was always
either bread or potatoes.

After the father and mother had grieved some time for this
sad affair, which gave them more concern than anything had
ever done yet, they thought that as they could contrive no other
way, they must somehow get rid of their children, One night
when the children were gone to bed, and the faggot-maker and
his wife were sitting over a few lighted sticks, to warm them-
selves, the husband sighed deeply, and said, “ You see, my dear,
we cannot maintain our children any longer; and to see them
die of hunger before my eyes, is what I could never bear. I will,
therefore, to-morrow morning take them to the forest, and leave
them in the thickest part of it, so that they will not be able to
find their way back: this will be very easy; for while they
amuse themselves with tying up the faggots, we need only slip