The wolf was not in sight, and instead of the barking which had terrified her, she now heard a lot of little bells tinkling, and in the distance she saw a waggon with four horses coming along.
The sound of the bells was so fascinating that Yvette forgot her duty as a mother, and stood there watching the waggon as it approached.
The horses were all grey, and they were coming so fast. Suddenly the child uttered an awe-struck cry.
Her child, her little son, was under the heavy wheels! Crunch! crunch! and it had gone by, the horrible waggon. Yvette went on to the horse-road, and her little heart was very full; for there, where poor Zizi had been lying, there was only some yellowish crunched stone. Zizi had been ground into powder by the huge wheels. The poor child was in despair, and, with tears in her eyes, she shook her little fists at the carrier, who was whipping up his horses.
"HER CHILD, HER LITTLE SON, WAS UNDER THE HEAVY WHEELS!"
"Cruel, wicked man!" she cried, and then her eyes happening to fall on the heap of stones which had supplied her with a family, she saw another stone smiling at her now. She ran quickly to it, picked it up and kissed it affectionately, and then, happy in her new treasure, she cried out defiantly to the carrier, whom she could still see in the distance: "Ah! I don't care! I've got another—there, then! and it's a girl this time. I won't have any more dreadful boys to be afraid of wolves, and to go and get themselves killed just to make their poor mother unhappy."
Oh! kind, good Fairy, you who watch over the children, and who give them their happiness and console them in sorrow when they are playing at life—oh, good Fairy, do not forget your big children.
Older men tell me that I am young, but the younger ones do not think so; and I, myself, saw, only this morning, a silver thread in my hairs. Oh, kind Fairy, Fairy of the children, help me, too, to believe that the moon is made of green cheese; for, after all, our happiness here below consists in our faith and in our illusions.