'A good dame opened the door'
At last the wood-cutter lost patience, for she repeated more than twenty times that he would repent it, and that she had told him so. He threatened to beat her if she did not hold her tongue.
It was not that the wood-cutter was less grieved than his wife, but she browbeat him, and he was of the same opinion as many other people, who like a woman to have the knack of saying the right thing, but not the trick of being always in the right.
'Alas!' cried the wood-cutter's wife, bursting into tears, 'where are now my children, my poor children?'
She said it once so loud that the children at the door heard it plainly. Together they all called out:
'Here we are! Here we are!'
She rushed to open the door for them, and exclaimed, as she embraced them:
'How glad I am to see you again, dear children! You must be very tired and very hungry. And you, Peterkin, how muddy you are—come and let me wash you!'