ed, and the
fagot-maker and his wife were sitting over a few lighted sticks, to
warm themselves, 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 fagots, we need only slip away when they
are looking some other way."

"Ah, husband!" 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 "that 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 brothers' 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 back 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
morning they all set out, as their father and mother had agreed on;
and Hop-o'-my-Thumb did not say a word to any of his brothers about
what he had heard. They came to a forest that was so very thick that
they could not see each other a few yards off. The fagot-maker set to
work cutting down wood; and the children began to gather the twigs, to
make fagots of them.

When the father and mother saw that the young ones were all very busy,
they slipped away without being seen. The children soon found
themselves alone, and began to cry as loud as they could.
Hop-o'-my-Thumb let them cry on, for he knew well enough how to lead
them safe home, as he had taken care to drop the white pebbles he had
in his pocket along all the way he had come. He only said to them,
"Never mind it, my lads; father and mother have left us here by
ourselves, but only take care to follow me, and I will lead