HIOP-O -MY-THUMB. 139

away when they are looking some other way.” “Ah! hus-
hand,” cried the poor wife, “* you cannot, no, You never can
consent to be the death of your own children.” "The husband
in vain told her to think how very poor they were. The wife
replied this was true, to be sure ; but if she was poor, she was
still their mother; and then she cried as if her heart would

 

 

 

break, At last she thought how shocking it would be to see
them starved to death before their eyes ; so she agreed to what
her husband had said, and then went sobbing to bed. Hop-o'-
my-thumb had been awake all the time ; and when he heard
his father talk very seriously, he slipped away from his brother's
side, and crept under his father’s bed, to hear all that was said
without being seen. When his father and mother had left off
talking, he got hack to his own place, and passed the night in
thinking what he should do the next morning. He rose early,
and ran to the river's side, where he filled his pockets with
small white pebbles, and then went back home. In the morn-
ing they all set out, as their fatber and mother had agreed on ;