'Alas, my poor little dears!' she said; 'you do not know the place you have come to! Have you not heard that this is the house of an ogre who eats little children?' 'Alas, madam!' answered little Tom Thumb, trembling like all the rest of his brothers, 'what shall we do? One thing is very certain: if you do not take us in, the wolves of the forest will devour us this very night, and that being so we should prefer to be eaten by your husband. Perhaps he may take pity on us, if you will plead for us.' The ogre's wife, thinking she might be able to hide them from her husband till the next morning, allowed them to come in, and put them to warm near a huge fire, where a whole sheep was cooking on the spit for the ogre's supper. Just as they were beginning to get warm they heard two or three great bangs at the door. The ogre had returned. His wife hid them quickly under the bed and ran to open the door. The first thing the ogre did was to ask whether supper was ready and the wine opened. Then without ado he sat down to table. Blood was still dripping from the sheep, but it seemed all the better to him for that. He sniffed to right and left, declaring that he could smell fresh flesh. 'Indeed!' said his wife. 'It must be the calf which I have just dressed that you smell.' '_I smell fresh flesh_, I tell you,' shouted the ogre, eyeing his wife askance; 'and there is something going on here which I do not understand.' With these words he got up from the table and went straight to the bed. 'Aha!' said he; 'so this is the way you deceive me, wicked woman that you are! I have a very great mind to eat you too! It's lucky for you that you are old and tough! I am expecting three ogre friends of mine to pay me a visit in the next few days, and here is a tasty dish which will just come in nicely for them!' One after another he dragged the children out from under the bed. [Illustration: '_He could smell fresh flesh_'] The poor things threw themselves on their knees, imploring mercy; but they had to deal with the most cruel of all ogres. Far from pitying them, he was already devouring them with his eyes, and repeating to his wife that when cooked with a good sauce they would make most dainty morsels. Off he went to get a large knife, which he sharpened, as he drew near the poor children, on a long stone in his left hand. He had already seized one of them when his wife called out to him. 'What do you want to do it now for?' she said; 'will it not be time enough to-morrow?' 'Hold your tongue,' replied the ogre; 'they will be all the more tender.' 'But you have such a lot of meat,' rejoined his wife; 'look, there are a calf, two sheep, and half a pig.' 'You are right,' said the ogre; 'give them a good supper to fatten them up, and take them to bed.' The good woman was overjoyed and brought them a splendid supper; but the poor little wretches were so cowed with fright that they could not eat.