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 and there you will find cakes, bacon, and sausages, as many as you can possibly eat’; and he went on to describe his father’s house.

The Wolf did not wait to hear this twice, and at night forced himself in through the grating, and ate to his heart’s content. When he was satisfied, he wanted to go away again; but he had grown so fat that he could not get out the same way. Tom had reckoned on this, and began to make a great commotion inside the Wolf’s body, struggling and screaming with all his might.

‘Be quiet,’ said the Wolf; ‘you will wake up the people of the house.’

‘All very fine,’ answered Tom. ‘You have eaten your fill, and now I am going to make merry’; and he began to scream again with all his might.

At last his father and mother woke up, ran to the room, and looked through the crack of the door. When they saw a Wolf, they went away, and the husband fetched his axe, and the wife a scythe.

‘You stay behind,’ said the man, as they came into the room. ‘If my blow does not kill him, you must attack him and rip up his body.’

When Tom Thumb heard his Father’s voice, he called out: ‘Dear Father, I am here, inside the Wolf’s body.’

Full of joy, his Father cried, ‘Heaven be praised! our dear child is found again,’ and he bade his wife throw aside the scythe that it might not injure Tom.

Then he gathered himself together, and struck the Wolf a blow on the head, so that it fell down lifeless. Then with knives and shears they ripped up the body, and took their little boy out.

‘Ah,’ said his Father, ‘what trouble we have been in about you.’

‘Yes, Father, I have travelled about the world, and I am thankful to breathe fresh air again.’

‘Wherever have you been?’ they asked.