get out of the
difficulty by the same means as the first time; but though he got up
very early to collect the little pebbles, he did not succeed in his
object, for he found the house door double locked. He was at his wit's
end what to do, when his mother having given each of them a piece of
bread for their breakfast, it occurred to him that he might make the
bread take the place of the pebbles, by strewing crumbs along the path
as they went, and so he put his piece in his pocket. The father and
mother led them into the thickest and darkest part of the forest, and as
soon as they had done so, they turned into a bypath, and left them
there. Little Thumbling did not trouble himself much, for he believed he
could easily find his way back by help of the crumbs which he had
scattered wherever he had passed; but he was greatly surprised to find
not a single crumb left--the birds had come and picked them all up. The
poor children were now, indeed, in great distress; the further they
wandered, the deeper they plunged into the forest. Night came on, and a
great wind arose, which filled them with terror. They fancied they heard
nothing on every side but the howling of wolves, running towards them to
devour them. They scarcely dared to speak or look behind them. Then
there came a heavy rain, which drenched them to the skin; they slipped
at every step, tumbling into the mud, out of which they scrambled
covered with dirt, not knowing what to do with their hands. Little
Thumbling climbed up a tree to try if he could see anything from the top
of it. Having looked about on all sides, he saw a little light, like
that of a candle, but it was a long way off, on the other side of the
forest. He came down again, and when he had reached the ground, he could
no longer see the light. He was in despair at this, but having walked on
with his brothers for some time in the direction of the light, he caught
sight of it again as they emerged from the forest.

At length they reached the house where the candle was shining, not
without many alarms, for often they lost sight of it altogether, and
always when they went down into the hollows. They knocked loudly at the
door, and a good woman came to open it. She asked them what they wanted.
Little Thumbling told her they were poor children who had lost their way
in the forest, and who begged a night's lodgings for charity's sake. The
woman, seeing they were all so pretty, began to weep, and said to them,
"