Stranica 204 [204]
164 GRIMM’S FAIRY TALES.
trouble and worry in this world! ‘The maid got up at dawn
of day to feed the cows. ‘The first place she went to was the
barn, where she took up an armful of hay, and it happened to
be the very heap in which Tom Thumb lay asleep. And he
was so fast asleep, that he was aware of nothing, and never
waked until he was in the mouth of the cow, who had taken
him up with the hay.
“Oh dear,” cried he, "how is it that I have got into a
mill !” but he soon found out where he was, and he had to be
very careful not to get between the cow’s teeth, and at last he
had to descend into the cow’s stomach.
“The windows were forgotten when this little room was
built,” said he, "and the sunshine cannot get in; there is no
light to be had.”
His quarters were in every way unpleasant to him, and,
what was the worst, new hay was constantly coming in, and the
space was being filled up. At last he cried out in his
extremity, as loud as he could,
‘No more hay for me! no more hay for me!”
The maid was then milking the cow, and as she heard a
voice, but could see no one, and as it was the same voice that
she had heard in the night, she was so frightened that she fell
off her stool, and spilt the milk. ‘Then she ran in great haste
to her master, crying,
6 Oh, master dear, the cow spoke !”
“You must be crazy,” answered her master, and he went
himself to the cow-house to see what was the matter. No
sooner had he put his foot inside the door, than Tom Thumb
cried out again,
‘“No more hay for me! no more hay for me!”
Then the parson himself was frightened, supposing that a
bad spirit had entered into the cow, and he ordered her to be
put to death. So she was killed, but the stomach, where ‘Tom
Thumb was lying, was thrown upon a dunghill. Tom Thumb
had great trouble to work his way out of it, and he had just
made a space big enough for his head to go through, when a
new misfortune happened. A hungry wolf ran up and swal¬
lowed the whole stomach at one gulp. But Tom Thumb did
not lose courage. ‘ Perhaps,” thought he, “the wolf. will
listen to reason,” and he cried out from the inside of the wolf,