So! Why, the ogre would like to see that for himself.
“Very well,” says the middle-sized little pig, “there is nothing easier than to learn that trick! just take a handful of leaves from yonder bush and rub them over your eyes, and then shut them tight and count fifty.”
Well, the ogre would have a try at that. So he gathered a handful of the leaves and rubbed them over his eyes, just as the middle-sized pig had said.
“And now are you ready?” said the middle-sized little pig.
Yes; the ogre was ready.
“Then shut your eyes and count,” said the middle-sized little pig.
So the ogre shut them as tightly as he could and began to count, “One, two, three, four, five,” and so on; and while he was counting, why, the little pig was running away home again.
By and by the ogre bawled out “Fifty!!!” and opened his eyes, for he was done. Then he saw not more, but less, than he had seen before, for the little pig was not there.
And now it was the largest of the three little pigs who began to talk about going out into the woods to look for acorns.
“You had better stay at home and take things as they come. The crock that goes often to the well gets broken at last;” that was what the cock, the speckled hen, the black drake, and the grey goose said; and they thought themselves very wise to talk as they did.