Page 146 - Child's own book

nop-o -m t-thum b. 139

away when they arc looking some other way.” “ Ah ! hus­
band," cried the poor wife, “ you cannot, no, you never can
consent (o he the death uf your own children.” The husband
in vain told her to think how very poor they were. The wife
replied this was true, to he sure ; hut 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 he to sec
them starved to death before their eyes ; so she agreed to what
her husband had said, and then went sobbing to bed. Ilop-o'-
iny-thumb had been awake all the tim e; 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 hack to his own place, and passed the night in
thinking what he should do the next morning. He rose early,
and ran to the rivers side, where he filled his pockets with
small white pebbles, and then went hack home. In the morn­
ing they all set out, as their father and mother had agreed on ;