Wednesday 28 July 2021

Good Reading: "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" by Ludwig Bechstein (translated into English)

Once on a time there was a poor basket maker. He and his wife had seven sons, each smaller than the next. The seventh was not much more than a finger's length, so he was called Hop o' my Thumb. He did grow a bit later on, but not so very much, and he kept his name of Hop o' my Thumb. However, he was a clever, artful boy, quicker witted than all his brothers put together.

One year the parents of these seven children became very poor; for basket-making and straw-weaving are by no means such good and certain employments as baking bread or killing fat calves. They did not know what to do to get food for their seven boys, who were all blessed with good appetites. So one night, when they had put their children to bed, the husband and wife decided to take their boys into the wood, to the spot where they gathered rushes to make baskets of. At that spot they would secretly leave their children.

But Hop-o'-My-Thumb chanced to lie awake that night and heard what his parents planned. The rest of the night he did not sleep at all; he was trying to find out how to escape the impending danger and to save his brothers and himself.

Early in the morning Hop-o'-My-Thumb got up and went to a stream that ran close by the house, filled his little pockets full of small white pebbles and returned home as quietly as he went. He did not say a word to his brothers about what he had overheard last night.

Soon the basket-maker and his wife called to their children to come along with them into the forest. Hop-o'-My-Thumb lagged behind, for small as he often got tired before the others. But he was secretly dropping pebbles as he walked, so that he might find the path home again.

When they reached the destined spot, the parents slyly slipped away without their children noticing it.

But after a short time the young ones discovered that they were alone. Then all raised a loud and dreadful outcry, except Hop-o'-My-Thumb, He only laughed and said to his brothers, "There, there, do not howl so frightfully. We will soon find the way!"

Then Hop-o'-My-Thumb went in front, and not behind, and looked for white pebbles as he walked, and found the right path.

Meanwhile the parents had reached home. There they found to their surprise that a neighbour had visited their cottage and paid an old debt. Gold money was lying in an old box he had left. They hurried to buy foodstuff; so much of it that their table groaned underneath it all. But when they sat down to eat, they felt terrible remorse at how that had treated their children. The wife began to lament bitterly. "Our dear children," she cried, "If they had been here now; all of them might eat as much as they liked. But perhaps the wolves have already eaten our dear children!"

"Here we are, mother!" cried Hop-o'-My-Thumb. He had come to the cottage and overheard his mother's lament. Opening the door, in he trotted with his brothers, – one, two, three, four, five, six, seven!

They had brought their good appetites with them, and the richly spread table invited to a feast. Everyone rejoiced, and so long as the money lasted all of them they lived very well.

However, after some time, when they had used up all the money, the basket-maker and his family were poor again. In their distress in the basket-maker and his wife were tempted to leave the children alone in the forest again. But Hop-o'-My-Thumb luckily overheard this second time too, and wanted to gather white pebbles as he had done the first time.

Early in the morning he went downstairs. He had in mind to slip out and fetch some pebbles; but this time the door was bolted, and Hop-o'-My-Thumb could not reach so high. So he had to device another plan, and therefore put his breakfast in his pocket instead of eating it. He wanted to drop crumbs as he went along.

The children were left to themselves, and this time Hop-o'-My-Thumb could not find the way home, for the birds had picked up all the crumbs. His brothers took to howling out loud, but they still had to walk on in the wood till it was dark.

When night fell on, the seven brothers slept on a mossy bank under a wide-spreading beech-tree.

As soon as daylight appeared, Hop-o'-My-Thumb climbed up the tree to see how the land lay. At first he saw nothing but forest trees and boughs, but then he detected there was a little cottage in the middle of the forest. He climbed down from the tree and walked in the direction of the cottage, and his brothers followed him. After struggling through many thickets of bramble bushes and briars, they all saw the house ahead among the trees. They went up to it and one of them knocked at the door. A woman opened it and Hop-o'-My-Thumb asked her if she could take them in, for they had lost their way and did not know where to turn.

"Oh, you poor children!" cried the woman and then let the brothers in. But she warned them that they were in the house of an ogre who liked to eat little children. This was a terrible situation!

The children trembled like aspen leaves when they heard they might be eaten up instead of getting food themselves when what they wanted was something to eat. However, the woman was kind-hearted; she gave them some food and hid them in a safe place.

Soon afterwards they heard heavy footsteps and a loud knocking at the door. The ogre had come. As soon as he came in he sat down to the table and began to eat, and drink a lot of wine. When he was satisfied, he called to his wife, "I smell human food!"

He soon looked about till he found the seven brothers. They were half-dead with terror when the ogre began to whet his knife to kill them. But his wife talked him out of it by saying they all needed to be fattened first, and especially the youngest.

Hence, the young ones were put to bed together. In the same room was another bed, a huge one. The seven daughters of the ogre slept there, and they were about the same size as the boys. They each wore a crown of gold. Hop-o'-My-Thumb had noticed that. Instead of going to sleep when his brothers did, he slipped out of bed and gently took the crowns from off the sisters' heads and placed them on the heads of his six brothers and himself. Instead of the crowns they got the night-caps the brothers had been furnished with.

While Hop-o'-My-Thumb was doing this, the ogre had been drinking heavily. It made him feel so savage and murderous that he rose from the table, took his knife and stepped softly into the sleeping-room. There he meant to chop off the heads of the seven brothers. But it was pitch dark in the room.

As he was stumbling about, he knocked against a bed. "Aha!" he cried as he felt the crowns on the heads of those lying in it, "I nearly made a fine mistake and killed my seven daughters instead of those seven young rascals!"

So saying, he groped about the room till he came to the other bed and felt only night-caps on the heads of the seven sleepers. Then he killed all of them in a minute before he lay down and went to sleep.

As soon as the ogre began to snore, Hop-o'-My-Thumb woke his brothers and led them out of the house into the forest. But there they wandered up and down for hour after hour, but they did not find a way back home.

The ogre woke up as morning dawned and asked his wife to go and have a look at his catch the night before.

She thought he wished her to wake up the boys and went at once to the room. But when she saw their seven daughters had been killed, she fell senseless to the floor at the dreadful sight. Some time later the ogre began to wonder what kept his wife and went to see.

When he understood what he had done he put on his seven-league boots in a hurry. The boots carried him two miles a step, so he made tremendous speed when he went to find the brothers.

Hop-o'-My-Thumb was the first to see him coming. Luckily there was a cave close by. He and his brothers took shelter in it. In a minute or two afterwards the ogre came up to the spot, but he did not see them anywhere.

All the running had made the ogre weary, so he threw himself down for a nap on the rock above the cave, and was soon fast asleep. While he snored loudly, Hop-o'-My-Thumb slipped out of his hiding-place and succeeded in pulling off the wonderful boots after a great deal of tugging. The wonder-boots used to shrink or expand to the size of the feet of those who wore them, so when Hop-o'-My-Thumb put them on, they formed themselves to his feet.

With the boots on his feet he managed to get his brothers away from there. They grasped one another tightly, and with the help of the boots they soon reached home. There their parents welcomed them all back.

Hop-o'-My-Thumb told his father and mother to take good care of his brothers while he went to seek his fortune in the seven league boots. Then he took one stride and got to the top of a hill. With another stride he was out of sight.

Hop-o'-My-Thumb bow made his fortune with the help of the seven league boots. He went on many long and dangerous journeys in the service of many good masters. No one on horseback or foot could catch up with him on his journeys.

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