and spying a
hollow place under a large rock, he made his brothers get into it. He
then crept in himself, but kept his eye fixed on the Ogre, to see what
he would do next.

The Ogre found himself quite weary with the journey he had gone, for
seven-league boots are very tiresome to the person who wears them; so
he now began to think of resting, and happened to sit down on the very
rock where the poor children were hid. As he was so tired, and it was
a hot day, he fell fast asleep, and soon began to snore so loud that
the little fellows were terrified.

When Hop-o'-my-Thumb saw this he said to his brothers, "Courage, my
lads! never fear! you have nothing to do but to steal away and get
home while the Ogre is fast asleep, and leave me to shift for myself."

The brothers now were very glad to do whatever he told them, and so
they soon came to their father's house. In the mean time
Hop-o'-my-Thumb went up to the Ogre softly, pulled off his
seven-league boots very gently, and put them on his own legs; for
though the boots were very large, yet being fairy-boots, they could
make themselves small enough to fit any leg they pleased.

As soon as ever Hop-o'-my-Thumb had made sure of the Ogre's
seven-league boots, he went at once to the palace, and offered his
services to carry orders from the King to his army, which was a great
way off, and to bring back the quickest accounts of the battle they
were just at that time fighting with the enemy. In short, he thought
he could be of more use to the King than all his mail-coaches, and so
should make his fortune in this manner. He succeeded so well that in a
short time he made money enough to keep himself, his father, mother,
and six brothers, without the trouble of working, for the rest of
their lives. Having done this, he went back to his father's cottage,
where all the family were delighted to see him again. As the great
fame of his boots had been talked of at court in this time the King
sent for him, and indeed employed him very often in the greatest
affairs of the state, so that he became one of the richest men in the
kingdom.

And now let us see what became of the wicked Ogre. He slept so soundly
that he never discovered the loss of his boots; but having an evil
conscience and bad dreams, he fell in his sleep from the corner of the
rock where Hop-o'-my-Thumb and his brothers had left him, and bruised
himself so much from head to foot that he could not stir; so he was
forced t