However, although he got up early the next morning to go out to collect some little pebbles, he was disappointed, for the door of the house was double locked, and he was at a loss as to what to do. When their father gave each of the children a piece of bread for breakfast, he thought he might make use of this instead of the pebbles by throwing little pieces all along the way they would travel through the forest, and so he put it into his pocket.

Their father and mother brought the children into the thickest and darkest part of the forest and, stealing away along a side path, they left them there. Tom Thumb was not very worried about this, for he thought that he could easily find the way home again by means of the bread that he had scattered along the way that they had travelled. But he was very surprised when he couldn’t find even a crumb, for the birds had come and eaten it all. The children were now in a dreadful state – the further they went, the more out of their way they were, and they became more and more bewildered.

Night fell and a very high wind rose, which made them dreadfully afraid. They thought they heard all around them the howling of wolves that had come to eat them up. They were afraid to speak or look around them. After this it rained very hard, which wet them through. Their feet slipped at every step they took, they fell in the mud and got themselves filthy, and their hands were cut and bruised.

Tom Thumb climbed to the top of a tree to see if he could discover where they were. Looking around in all directions he finally saw a glimmering light, like the light of a candle, a long way from the forest. He came down from the tree, but when he was on the ground he was upset to find that he could no longer see the light. However, he and his brothers walked for some time in the direction of the light, and he saw it again as they came out of the wood.

The children came at last to the house where this candle was, feeling very afraid. Every time they had walked into a hollow they had lost sight of the candle. They knocked on the door of the house and a woman opened it. She asked them what she could do for them.

Tom Thumb told her that they were poor children who had been lost in the forest, and wanted to sleep at the house. The woman began to cry when she saw what beautiful children they were.

“Alas, poor children! Where have you come from? Don’t you know that this house belongs to a cruel ogre, who eats up little children?”

“Oh!” cried Tom Thumb (who was trembling all over, as were his brothers), “What will we do? The wolves in the forest will devour us tonight, if you don’t let us stay here, so we would prefer to be eaten by the gentleman. Perhaps he will take pity on us, especially if you make the request.”

The ogre’s wife, who thought she could hide the children from her husband until morning, let them come in and warm themselves at the blazing fire, where a whole sheep was roasting on the spit for the ogre’s supper.

As they began to warm up a little, the children heard three or four huge raps on the door. This was the ogre, who had come home. At this, the ogre’s wife hid them under the bed and went to open the door. The ogre asked if his supper was ready and the wine decanted, then he sat down at the table. The sheep that had been cooking on the spit was still raw and bloody, but he liked it better that way. He sniffed about to the right and the left, saying, “I smell fresh meat.”

“What you smell,” said his wife, “must be the calf that I have just now killed and skinned.”

“I smell fresh meat, I tell you,” replied the ogre, looking crossly at his wife, “and there is something here that I do not understand.”

As he said this, he got up from the table and went straight over to the bed under which the children were hiding.

“Ah!” he said, “I see how you want to cheat me, you cursed woman. I don’t know why I don’t eat you up too, but it’s just as well for you that you’re a tough old bird. Here is good game, which has arrived by chance just in time to entertain three ogres of my acquaintance, who will be paying me a visit in a day or two.”

With that, the ogre dragged the children from under the bed one by one. The poor children fell on their knees and begged him to spare them, but they were dealing with one of the cruellest ogres in the world who, far from taking pity on them, had already devoured them with his eyes. He told his wife they would be a delicacy when served with a good sauce. He then picked up a huge knife and, coming up to the poor children, sharpened it on a big whetstone, which he held in his left hand. He had already taken hold of one of the children when his wife said to him,

“Why do you need to do it now? It will be time enough tomorrow.”

“Hold your tongue,” said the ogre, “they will be more tender if I kill them now.”

“But you have so much meat already,” replied his wife, “you have no need of these children. Here is a calf, two sheep and half a pig.”

“That is true,” said the ogre, “feed them up so they don’t fade away, and put them to bed.”

The good woman was overjoyed to hear this, and gave the children a good supper, but they were so afraid that they couldn’t eat anything. As for the ogre, he sat down again to drink, delighted that he would be able to treat his friends to a good meal.