The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats

Once upon a time there was an old mother goat who had seven little kids, and she loved them as every mother loves her children. One day she wanted to go into the forest to fetch food. She called all seven kids and said: "Dear children, I'm going into the forest. Be on your guard against the wolf. If he gets in, he will eat you all up, every hair of you. The wicked wolf often disguises himself, but you'll know him at once by his rough voice and his black feet." "Dear Mother, we'll take good care of ourselves. You can go without worrying," said the kids. And the old goat bleated and went on her way with an easy mind.

It was not long before someone knocked at the door and called: "Open the door, dear children. Your mother is here and has brought something for each of you." But the kids knew from the rough voice that it was the wolf. "We won't open the door," they cried. "You're not our mother. Our mother has a soft, sweet voice, but yours is rough. You're the wolf!"

So the wolf went to a shop and bought a big lump of chalk. He ate it, and it made his voice soft. Then he came back, knocked at the door and called: "Open the door, dear children. Your mother is here and has brought something for each of you." But the wolf had laid his black paw on the windowsill. When the kids saw it, they cried, "We won't open the door! Our mother doesn't have black feet like you. You're the wolf!"

The wolf ran to a baker: "I've hurt my foot. Spread some dough on it for me." When the baker had spread dough on his foot, the wolf ran to the miller: "Sprinkle some white flour on my foot." The miller thought to himself, "The wolf wants to trick someone," and at first he refused. But when the wolf said, "If you don't do it, I'll eat you," the miller was afraid and made his paw white. That's what people are like.

The wicked wolf went to the door a third time, knocked and called: "Open the door, children. Your dear mother is home and has brought each of you something from the forest." "First show us your foot, so we know whether you're our dear mother," said the kids. The wolf put his paw on the windowsill. When they saw that it was white, they believed everything he said, and they opened the door.

But it was the wolf who came in! The kids were terrified and tried to hide. One jumped under the table, the second into the bed, the third into the stove, the fourth into the kitchen, the fifth into the cupboard, the sixth under the washbasin and the seventh into the case of the grandfather clock. But the wolf found them all and, without wasting any time, gulped them down one after another. Only the youngest, in the clock case, he did not find. When the wolf had eaten his fill, he went out of the house, lay down under a tree in the green meadow and fell asleep.

Soon afterwards the old mother goat came home from the forest. Oh, what a sight she saw! The door stood wide open, the table, chairs and benches were knocked over, the washbasin was smashed, and the quilt and pillows had been pulled off the bed. She looked for her children, but they were nowhere to be found. She called them one after another by name, but no one answered. At last, when she said the name of the youngest, a little voice cried: "Dear Mother, I'm in the clock case." She took the kid out, and it told her that the wolf had come and eaten all the others. You can imagine how she wept for her poor children.

At last, in her grief, she went outside, and the youngest kid ran after her. When she came to the meadow, she saw the wolf lying under the tree, snoring so loudly that the branches shook. She looked at him from every side and saw that something was moving and wriggling inside his swollen belly. "Oh goodness," she thought, "could it be that my poor children, whom he swallowed for his supper, are still alive?"

The youngest kid had to run home and fetch scissors, a needle and thread. The mother goat cut open the monster's belly. She had hardly made the first snip when one of the kids stuck its head out. As she cut further, all six of them jumped out one after another, all safe and sound, not one of them hurt, because in his greed the wolf had swallowed them whole. What joy there was! They hugged their mother and skipped about like a tailor at his wedding.

But the mother goat said, "Now go and look for some big stones. We'll fill the wicked beast's belly with them while he's still asleep." The seven kids ran and fetched stones and stuffed as many into the wolf's belly as they could. Then the mother goat sewed him up again so quickly that he noticed nothing and did not even stir.

When the wolf had finally had his sleep, he got up. The stones made him very thirsty, so he wanted to go to a well to drink. As he began to walk, the stones in his belly knocked against each other and rattled. Then he cried: "What's rumbling and tumbling in my belly? I thought I'd eaten six little goats, but they feel like stones!" When he reached the well and bent over the water to drink, the heavy stones pulled him in, and the wolf fell into the well.

When the seven kids saw this, they came running and shouted: "The wolf is gone! The wolf is gone!" And they danced for joy around the well with their mother. And from that day on, whoever knocked at the door, the seven little goats first listened to the voice, looked at the feet, and never opened the door to anyone without asking their mother.