HOP-O'-MY- bread for their family. At last they spent their

THUMB

last penny, and knew that when they had finished
the loaf that was then in the house they must
starve.
Very sad and wretched were the pair that evening
as they sat over the wood fire, thinking of what
awaited them. The children had been long in bed,
and were, as the parents thought, asleep, and
knew nothing of the miseries of the coming day.
‘My dear wife,’ said the woodcutter, breaking a
long silence, and his voice sounded hoarse and
hollow, ‘my dear wife, I have something to say
to you. I cannot bear to see our poor dear children
die of the slow pangs of hunger. I think we had
better take them into the forest to-morrow, and
leave them there. It is possible that the fairies
may take pity on their innocence and helplessness,
and carry them off to live with them. At any rate,
we shall be spared seeing them die, and hearing
their cries for food.’
‘Oh, husband,’ said the poor startled woman,
‘how can you think of so dreadfula deed? Have
you forgotten that the wolves which haunt the
woods would be much more likely to eat the poor
babes up than the fairies to feed them? Oh, no,
no! I will never consent.’
But the husband was a man who, when once he
had resolved on a thing, was not easily turned
from his purpose; so he talked, and argued, and
scolded his poor wife, till he made her give an
unwilling consent to his proposal.
‘Heaven, you see, has left us to starve,’ he said ;
‘therefore we need not care what we do, or what
becomes of us.’
These were foolish and wicked words. Heaven
never forgets us, and the woodcutter ought to
have been patient and have waited till help came,
or else he should have died bravely without daring
to do wrong. But he had lived very long in the
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