Page 148 - Child's own book

children were not at home when she was thinking what would
bo enough for dinner; but as soon as she and her husband had
done eating, she cried out, u Alas! where arc our poor children ?
how they would feast on what we have ! it was all your
fault, Kichard ! I told you over and over that we should rejwnt
ihe hour when we left them to starve in the forest!—Oh,
mercy! perhaps they have already been eaten by the hungry
wolves! Kichard ! Richard ? 1 told you how it would be ! ”
At last the faggot-mnker grew very angry with his wife, w ho
said more than twenty times that he would repent what he had
done, and that she had told him so again and apain. He said
ho would give her a good heating if she did not hold her
tongue. Now, indeed, the faggot-makcr was quite as sorry as
his wife for what he had done; but htr scolding teased him:
and, like other husbands, he liked his tti/e to be altrays in the
right, hut not to talk of being ko. The poor woman s>hed plenty
of (ears : u Alas! alas !" said she, over and over again, “ what
is become of my dear children ? ” and oncc she spoke this so
loud, that the children, who were all at the door, cried out ail
together, “ Here we fire, mother, here we are ! ” She flew like
lightning to let them in, and kissed everyone of them. “ How
glad I am to see you, you little rogues I ” said she ; *4arc you
not tired and hungry ? Ah [ poor little Hobby ; why thou art
dirt all over, my child : come hither, and let me wash thy
face." Bobby wna the youngest of the boys, except Hop-
o'-my-thumb; and as he had red hair, like his mother, he had
always been her darling. 'I he children sat down to dinner,
and ate very hearty, to the great joy of the parents. They
then gave an account, speaking all ai once, how much they
were afraid when they found themselves alone in the forest,
and did not know their way home again.
The faggot-maker and his wife were charmed at having their