and feed them up, for as you see they are half- HOP-O-MY-
starved, and terribly thin.’ THUMB
The giant took up Hop-o’-my-Thumb and pinched
his arms.

‘You are right,’ he said; ‘they must be fattened.
This child is nothing but skin and bone.’

So their long want of food saved their lives for
the nonce. Then the woman, with real pleasure,
but as if to oblige her husband, brought them a
good supper, and coaxed them to eat, and they
were so hungry that they were glad to do so,
although they were trembling with fear. Mean-
time the ogre sat down to the table, and, being
very merry at the thought of the delicate dinner he
would give his friends, he drank a great deal of wine;
more by a dozen glasses than usual, and thus he
grew so tipsy that he was obliged to go to bed early.
Then the good woman put the seven little boys
to bed in the same room with the giant’s own
daughters by his first wife, who was dead, and
they were just about their ages. These seven
little ogresses had very white skins, small eyes,
and little noses and mouths, like other children ;
but they had long and sharp teeth—far apart.
Though they were too young to do much mischief,
they were as cruel as their father, and would bite
pieces out of little children whenever they could
get at them. The ogresses had been in bed some
time, and were fast asleep. They lay side by side
ina big bed; each of them wore a golden crown on
her head. The ogre’s wife put a nightcap on each
of the boys.

Now Hop-o’-my-Thumb was afraid that the giant
might change his mind, and kill them in the night ;
SO, aS soon as the good woman was gone, he took
off the gold crowns from the heads of the little
ogresses, and put them on his brothers and him-
self; and he set the nightcaps on the little girls’
heads. This was a very wise proceeding. The

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