  Part Two No matter how much trouble we may be in, there is always a good way out. We left Tom Thumb inside the cow. More hay kept on coming down until Tom cried out: “Don’t send any more hay! Don’t send any more hay!” The cook was milking just at that time, and hearing the noise inside the cow she was so astonished that she fell off the stool and spilled all the milk. She ran to the farmer and exclaimed: “The cow is bewitched! She is talking aloud and says she doesn’t want any more hay!” The farmer ran to the barn and listened to the voice inside the cow. “Mercy on me!” he cried. “Surely the cow is bewitched. We must kill her at once!” So he took an ax and cut her all to pieces, and threw the stomach with Tom inside out into the road. Before Tom could get out a wolf came along and swallowed the stomach without chewing it a bit, he was so hungry, and so Tom was now inside a wolf, and not much better off than before. But he was not at all discouraged and began to talk to the wolf. “I can tell you where you can get some fine things to eat—fresh meat, ham and some chickens,” said he to the wolf. The wolf was eager to hear about the place, and Tom described the place and how to get into the kitchen where all those things were. The wolf did not know that Tom was describing his own home and planning to get the wolf into trouble. “That suits me exactly,” said the wolf, and that very night he ran to the farmer’s house and squeezed into the kitchen through a drain pipe. He could do this easily for he was very thin from eating so little for a long time. Once in, he ate and ate until his sides stuck out like a balloon that had been blown up. When the wolf had eaten all there was, Tom set up a great shout and woke up the cook. The cook came in, and seeing the wolf ran to wake up the farmer and his wife. The farmer ran with his ax, his wife brought the scythe, and the cook seized the big meat knife. The wolf ran to the drain pipe and started to get through, but he had eaten so much he stuck half way. Then they fell upon him and began to hack him to pieces. “Look out! I am inside here!” shouted Tom. “Heaven be praised!” said his father. “That’s Tom’s voice!” and he soon had the wolf cut half in two and Tom jumped out, and into his mother’s arms. They were glad to see their little son |
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