"I simply can't be bothered with that goat any longer," he said. "I have quite enough to worry about already with Manoel Littlebean lost and my poor wife nearly sick with anxiety because of it."
He never dreamed that it was his son who was making the goat so wild with misery. When the goat was dead he threw it out into the street.
That night a wolf came and ate the goat. He swallowed the goat's stomach so greedily that Manoel Littlebean had no time to escape. However he jumped about just as actively inside the wolf as he had done when the goat had swallowed him. The wolf was just as uncomfortable as the goat had been.
"What is the matter with me?" thought the wolf. "Never in my life have I had such a stomachache. I believe I'm going to die."
He ran away into the forest and crept into a cave to await his end. Inside the cave was a robbers' den. Three of the robbers were there counting over the gold they had just brought back.
When they saw the wolf they were so frightened that they dropped their bags of gold and ran away as fast as they could, leaving everything behind them.
Manoel Littlebean guessed that he was making the wolf sick.
"If I can only make him so ill that he will spit me up!" said Manoel to himself as he jumped about his liveliest.
That is exactly what happened. The wolf spit Manoel Littlebean out.
He was decidedly dirty and unattractive, but he didn't mind in the least. He saw the quantities of gold in the robbers' cave and his eyes shone.