“Nonsense,” said the rector; “cows do not talk.” Nevertheless, he went to the cow-shed. No sooner had he stepped inside the door than the cow lifted her head, and a voice called in great distress: “No more hay, please! no more hay!”
“Alas,” cried the rector, “my beautiful cow is bewitched! It is best to kill her before she makes mischief with the other cows.”
So the cow was slaughtered, and the stomach, with Little Thumb inside, was flung away.
“Now, I will work my way out and run home,” thought Tom. But he was to have another adventure first. He had just gotten his head free, when a hungry wolf, attracted by the smell of the freshly-killed meat, seized the stomach in its jaws and sprang away into the forest.
Instead of losing courage, Little Thumb began to plan a way of escape. He decided on a bold scheme. In his loudest voice he called: “Wolf, if you are hungry, I know where you can get a choice dinner.”
“Where?” asked the wolf.
“There is a house not far away, and I know a hole through which you can crawl into the kitchen. Once there you can eat and drink to your heart’s content.”
The wolf did not know that Tom meant his own home; but the mention of these good things to eat made him very hungry, and following Tom’s directions he quickly reached the house.
Things were exactly as promised. Tom waited till he was sure the wolf had eaten so much that he could not get out through the hole he came in. Then he called from inside the wolf: “Father, mother, help! I am here—in the wolf’s body.”
It did not take long for the father to finish the wolf and rescue his dear boy.