Goldlocks peeped out of his snowy bed and said, “There is a bat outside which will show you the way, and if you follow him better than you did the butterfly you will reach home in fairly good time.”
Then Winikin put out the lamps in the sleeping-room, but before he put out the lights in the large hall he couldn’t resist sauntering around once more to look at the toys. When he reached the door that led to the fruit-chamber he thought he might as well fill up his basket again, as a few cherries could not be missed from such a quantity. This he did. Then fearing the boys would chide him for his delay he began to put out the lights. Very foolishly he started with the one nearest the outer door, so that by the time he reached the end of the long hall and put out the last lamp, he found himself in the dark.
Winikin was now so frightened that he didn’t know what to do, for, if he tried to move in the dark he would be sure to overturn the table or the stools, so he cowered down in the corner hoping the boys would fall asleep and forget him, and that next morning he might escape before they were up. But presently he heard the boys get up very softly and come into the hall saying, “There’s a thief here!” Winikin held his breath, and hoped to escape without notice; but they marched up to the corner where he lay hid just as if it had been broad daylight. Each had a rod in his hand and Winikin received a sound thrashing. At last he cried out, “It is only I. Don’t hurt me!”
Then they stopped and dragged Winikin out of the hall. They emptied the basket of the cherries he had taken, which were easily distinguished from the others, as in his hurry he had helped himself out of a golden basket to some cherries that had hardened into rubies. Then the lads fetched an ivory ladder of great length and putting it over the hedge they forced him to leave the garden at once.
Winikin cried bitterly when he saw the ladder taken up again but at last he began to think he had better make the best of a bad bargain. So he set off and, as Goldlocks had promised, a bat flew before him to show him the way.
For awhile he followed his leader carefully and made good resolutions as he went along, but alas! Suddenly a troop of fireflies flitted past him, and he said to himself, “How much better they would light me than this tiresome bat which keeps flapping his wings in my eyes! The fireflies are like so many lanterns and surely they’ll know the way best.” But they led him into a bog where he spent the night.
When morning dawned, he looked round for some hut where he could ask his way, but he recollected to his horror that neither yesterday nor the day before had he seen even a single being stirring anywhere. He saw that he was within a charmed circle, and kept turning to no purpose. After toiling for some time he again recognized familiar objects, and the well-known garden in the distance. Winikin hardly dared again apply to the little boys, yet having eaten all the cherries to appease his hunger, and seeing no chance of freeing himself from his desperate position, he went to the rocks and clapped hands. Presently the boys appeared.
“Who dares to come a third time unbidden?” said they.
“Alas!” cried the foolish wanderer, “I have again lost my way, and eaten all the cherries. Please take pity and let me come up.”
“No,” said they, “you do not deserve to come into our garden any more; and as you are not to be trusted to go home, and we don’t wish to be disturbed by you again, we shall now send you back.”