The Best English Fairy Tales / Лучшие английские сказки

“This is lucky,” said he, “I can sleep here very well.”

Just as he was falling asleep, he heard two men talking to each other. And one said to the other, “How can we rob that rich man’s house?”

“I’ll tell you!” cried Tom.

“What is it?” said the thief, frightened, “I’m sure I heard someone speaking.”

They stood still listening, and Tom said,

“Take me with you, and I’ll show you how to get the money.”

“But where are you?” asked they.

“Look about on the ground,” answered he.

At last the thieves found him out, and lifted him up in their hands.

“You’re so small!” they said, “what can you do for us?”

“I can get into the house, and throw you out whatever you want.”

“Hm,” said the thieves; “yes, you can help us, come along.”

When they came to the rich man’s house, Tom slipped through the window-bars into the room. And then he cried loudly, “Will you have all that is here?”

The thieves were frightened, because Tom was very loud.

“How much will you have? Shall I throw it all out?”

The cook woke up in the next room and listened. The thieves were frightened, but they said, “Stop making jokes, throw us out some money.”

Then Tom cried out as loud as he could, “Very well! Hold your hands! Here it comes.”

The cook heard it, so she jumped out of bed, and ran to open the door. The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails.

The little man found a nice place in the hay to finish his night’s rest. He wanted to have a good sleep and then find his way home to his father and mother.

The cook woke up early to feed the cows and took a large bundle of hay[25 - bundle of hay – вязанка сена], with the little man in the middle of it. He still slept on, and woke up only when he was in the mouth of the cow.

“It is very dark,” said he; “they forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in.”

He was already in the cow’s stomach, and more and more hay was always coming down. And he didn’t have enough space, it became smaller and smaller. At last he cried out as loud as he could, “Don’t bring me any more hay! Don’t bring me any more hay!”

The cook heard someone speak. She was sure it was the same voice that she had heard in the night.