TOM THUMB
Part Two
No matter how much trouble we may be in, there is always a good way out.
We left Tom Thumb inside the cow. More hay kept on coming down until Tom cried out: “Don’t send any more hay! Don’t send any more hay!” The cook was milking just at that time, and hearing the noise inside the cow she was so astonished that she fell off the stool and spilled all the milk.
She ran to the farmer and exclaimed:
“The cow is bewitched! She is talking aloud and says she doesn’t want any more hay!” The farmer ran to the barn and listened to the voice inside the cow.
“Mercy on me!” he cried. “Surely the cow is bewitched. We must kill her at once!” So he took an ax and cut her all to pieces, and threw the stomach with Tom inside out into the road.
Before Tom could get out a wolf came along and swallowed the stomach without chewing it a bit, he was so hungry, and so Tom was now inside a wolf, and not much better off than before. But he was not at all discouraged and began to talk to the wolf.