The Seven Young Goats and the Wolf

There was once an old goat who had seven little kids. She loved them all as much as any mother ever loved her children.

One day the old goat wanted to go into the woods to get food for her kids. Before she went out she called them and said:

“Dear children, I am going into the woods. Do not open the door while I am away. If the old wolf gets into our hut, he will eat you all up, and not a hair will be left. You can easily recognize him by his rough voice and his black feet.”

“Dear mother,” cried all the young kids, “we will be very careful not to let the old wolf in. Don’t worry about us at all. We will be safe.”

So the old goat went off into the dark woods to get some food.

She wasn’t gone for a long time, when there was a loud knock at the door, and a voice cried:

“Open the door, my dear children. I have something here for each of you.”

But the young kids knew by the rough voice that this was the old wolf.

So one of them said, “We won’t open the door. Our mother’s voice is soft and gentle. Your voice is rough. You are a wolf.”

The old wolf ran away to a shop, where he ordered a delicious hot tea with lots of honey.

Then he went back to the goat’s hut and knocked on the door.

He spoke in a voice that was soft like honey. He said, “Open the door for me, my dear children. I am your mother.”

But the oldest little goat thought of what his mother had said.

“If you are our mother, put your foot on the window sill, so that we can see it.”

When the wolf showed his foot, all the little goats cried out, “No, you are not our mother. We won’t open the door. Our mother’s feet are white and yours are black. Go away! You are the wolf.”

Then the wolf went to the flour mill, and said to the miller, “Mr. Miller, put some flour on my foot, because I have hurt it.”

The miller thought this was a strange request, but he was so afraid of the wolf that he did as he was told.

Then the wicked wolf went to the goat’s house again and said, “Open the door, dear children, because I am your mother.”

“Show us your foot,” said the little kids.

So the wolf put his one white foot on the window sill.

When the little kids saw that it was white, they thought this was really their mother, and they opened the door.

The ugly old wolf jumped in, and all the little kids ran to hide.

The first kid hid under the table, the second hid in the bed, the third hid in the oven, the fourth hid in the kitchen, the fifth hid in the cupboard, the sixth hid under the washtub, and the seventh, who was the smallest of all, hid in the tall clock.

The wolf quickly found and ate up all of them, except the youngest, who was in the clock.

Then the wolf, who felt sleepy, went out and lay down on the green grass.
Soon he was fast asleep.

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A little while later, the old mother goat came home from the woods.

Oh, what did she see! The house door was wide open, and the tables and chairs were knocked over. The dishes were broken on the floor and the bed was tipped over.

“Where are my dear children?” cried the poor goat.

At last, she heard a little voice crying, “Dear mother, here I am in the tall clock.”

The old goat helped the little goat out of the clock.

Soon, she learned how the wolf had eaten her dear children.

She went out of the hut, and she saw the wolf laying on the grass. He was sound asleep.

As the goat looked at the wicked old wolf, she thought she saw something jumping around inside him.

“Ah,” she said, “my poor children might still be alive.”

So she sent the little kid into the house to get a pair of scissors and a needle and some thread.

She quickly cut a hole in the stomach of the wicked old wolf.

She made one small snip with the scissors and one of the kids stuck out his head. As the old goat cut, more and more heads popped out.

At last all six of the kids jumped out on the grass. They went hopping and skipping around their mother.

Then the old mother goat said to them, “Go and bring me some large stones from the brook.”

The seven little kids ran off to the brook and soon came back with seven large stones. They put these stones inside the wicked old wolf’s stomach.

The old goat sewed up the wolf’s side so gently and quietly that he did not wake up or move.

When at last the wicked wolf did wake up, the great stones inside him made him feel very heavy. He was thirsty, too, so he walked down to the brook to drink.

The stones were so heavy that they tipped him over the edge of the bank into the deep water. The wolf drowned in the brook.

The End