172 Fairy Tales

with little mercy ; for when the puppy sniffed
and puffed, and declared that his breath was
gone, Wolf only remarked that it came of
honey-cakes and fat, and that the run would
do him good.

He gave him no chance of escape until he
had him at the farm, and brought him
Straight into the kitchen, where the farmer
and his wife and the dairymaid—because
she had found it—were poring over the letter
which the dwarf woman had left, for they
did little else. You may suppose what they
felt when they saw Ju-Ju. The mother had
him in her arms in a moment.

‘Oh, husband,” she cried, “our children
are near! Otherwise, depend upon it, Ju-Ju
would never have left them, dear faithful
little creature! Oh, if only he could speak!
Ju-Ju, can’t you tell us? And how tired he
looks, and how he pants! Run, run, Lisa,
and get the poor darling some milk.”

And she kissed him again and again.

Somehow or other the children’s father
was not quite so certain. He knew the two