They were very poor , and their seven children incommoded them greatly , because not one of them was able to earn his bread . That which gave them yet more uneasiness was that the youngest was of a very puny constitution , and scarce ever spoke a word , which made them take that for stupidity which was a sign of good sense . He was very little , and when born no bigger than one 's thumb , which made him be called Little Thumb . The poor child bore the blame of whatsoever was done amiss in the house , and , guilty or not , was always in the wrong ; he was , notwithstanding , more cunning and had a far greater share of wisdom than all his brothers put together ; and , if he spake little , he heard and thought the more . There happened now to come a very bad year , and the famine was so great that these poor people resolved to rid themselves of their children . One evening , when they were all in bed and the fagot-maker was sitting with his wife at the fire , he said to her , with his heart ready to burst with grief : `` Thou seest plainly that we are not able to keep our children , and I can not see them starve to death before my face ; I am resolved to lose them in the wood to-morrow , which may very easily be done ; for , while they are busy in tying up fagots , we may run away , and leave them , without their taking any notice . '' `` Ah ! '' cried his wife ; `` and canst thou thyself have the heart to take thy children out along with thee on purpose to lose them ? '' In vain did her husband represent to her their extreme poverty : she would not consent to it ; she was indeed poor , but she was their mother . However , having considered what a grief it would be to her to see them perish with hunger , she at last consented , and went to bed all in tears . Little Thumb heard every word that had been spoken ; for observing , as he lay in his bed , that they were talking very busily , he got up softly , and hid himself under his father 's stool , that he might hear what they said without being seen . He went to bed again , but did not sleep a wink all the rest of the night , thinking on what he had to do . He got up early in the morning , and went to the river-side , where he filled his pockets full of small white pebbles , and then returned home . They all went abroad , but Little Thumb never told his brothers one syllable of what he knew . 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 XXXXX the forest .
In along at because into of that under with without