They went into a very thick forest , where they could not see one another at ten paces distance . The fagot-maker began to cut wood , and the children to gather up the sticks to make fagots . Their father and mother , seeing them busy at their work , got away from them insensibly , and ran away from them all at once , along a by-way through the winding bushes . When the children saw they were left alone , they began to cry as loud as they could . Little Thumb let them cry on , knowing very well how to get home again , for , as he came , he took care to drop all along the way the little white pebbles he had in his pockets . Then he said to them : `` Be not afraid , brothers ; father and mother have left us here , but I will lead you home again , only follow me . '' They did so , and he brought them home by the very same way they came into the forest . They dared not go in , but sat themselves down at the door , listening to what their father and mother were saying . The very moment the fagot-maker and his wife reached home the lord of the manor sent them ten crowns , which he had owed them a long while , and which they never expected . This gave them new life , for the poor people were almost famished . The fagot-maker sent his wife immediately to the butcher 's . As it was a long while since they had eaten a bit , she bought thrice as much meat as would sup two people . When they had eaten , the woman said : `` Alas ! where are now our poor children ? they would make a good feast of what we have left here ; but it was you , William , who had a mind to lose them : I told you we should repent of it . What are they now doing in the forest ? Alas ! dear God , the wolves have perhaps already eaten them up ; thou art very inhuman thus to have lost thy children . '' The fagot-maker grew at last quite out of patience , for she repeated it above twenty times , that they should repent of it , and that she was in the right of it for so saying . He threatened to beat her if she did not hold her tongue .
It was not that the fagot-maker was not , perhaps , more vexed than his wife , but that she teased him , and that he was of the humor XXXXX a great many others , who love wives to speak well , but think those very importunate who are continually doing so .
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