inside him.

"Can it be," thought she, "that my poor children whom he has swallowed
for his supper are yet alive?" So she sent the little gosling back to
the house for scissors, needle, and thread, and began to slit up the
monster's stomach. Scarcely had she given one snip, when out came the
head of a gosling, and when she had cut a little further, the six
jumped out one after another, not having taken the least hurt, because
the greedy monster had swallowed them down whole. That was a joy! They
embraced their mother tenderly, and skipped about as lively as a
tailor at his wedding.

But the old goose said, "Now go and find me six large stones, which we
will put inside the greedy beast while he is still asleep." So the
goslings got the stones in all haste, and they put them inside the
wolf; and the old goose sewed him up again in a great hurry, while he
never once moved nor took any notice.

Now when the wolf at last woke up and got upon his legs, he found he
was very thirsty, and wished to go to the spring to drink. But as soon
as he began to move the stones began to shake and rattle inside him,
till he cried,--

"What's this rumbling and tumbling,
What's this rattling like bones?
I thought I had eaten six little geese,
But they've turned out only stones."

And when he came to the spring and bent down his head to drink, the
heavy stones overbalanced him, and in he went head over heels. Now
when the seven goslings saw this, they came running up, crying
loudly, "The wolf is dead, the wolf is dead!" and danced for joy all
round the spring, and their mother with them.

THE FAIR ONE WITH GOLDEN LOCKS.

There was once a king's daughter so beautiful that they named her the
Fair One with Golden Locks. These golden locks were the most
remarkable in the world, soft and fine, and falling in long waves down
to her very feet. She wore them always thus, loose and flowing,
surmounted with a wreath of flowers; and though such long hair was
sometimes rather inconvenient, it was so exceedingly beautiful,
shining in the sun like ripples of molten gold, that everybody agreed
she fully deserved her name.

Now there was a young king of a neighbouring country, very handsome,
very rich, and wanting nothing but a wife to make him happy. He heard
so much of the various perfections of the Fair One with Golden Locks,
that at last, without even seeing her, he fell in love with her so
desperately that he co