The little tailor journeyed on and came to a great forest, and therehe fell in with a band of robbers who had a design to steal the King'streasure. When they saw the little tailor, they thought, "A littlefellow like that can creep through a key-hole and serve as picklock tous." "Hollo," cried one of them, "thou giant Goliath, wilt thou go to thetreasure-chamber with us? Thou canst slip thyself in and throw out themoney." Thumbling reflected a while, and at length he said, "yes," andwent with them to the treasure-chamber. Then he looked at the doors aboveand below, to see if there was any crack in them. It was not long beforehe espied one which was broad enough to let him in. He was therefore aboutto get in at once, but one of the two sentries who stood before the door,observed him, and said to the other, "What an ugly spider is creepingthere; I will kill it." "Let the poor creature alone," said the other;"it has done thee no harm." Then Thumbling got safely through the creviceinto the treasure-chamber, opened the window beneath which the robberswere standing, and threw out to them one thaler after another. When thelittle tailor was in the full swing of his work, he heard the King comingto inspect his treasure-chamber, and crept hastily into a hiding-place.The King noticed that several solid thalers were missing, but could notconceive who could have stolen them, for locks and bolts were in goodcondition, and all seemed well guarded. Then he went away again, and saidto the sentries, "Be on the watch, some one is after the money." Whentherefore Thumbling recommenced his labours, they heard the money moving,and a sound of klink, klink, klink. They ran swiftly in to seize thethief, but the little tailor, who heard them coming, was still swifter,and leapt into a corner and covered himself with a thaler, so that nothingcould be seen of him, and at the same time he mocked the sentries andcried, "Here am I!" The sentries ran thither, but as they got there, hehad already hopped into another corner under a thaler, and was crying,"Ho, ho, here am I!" The watchmen sprang there in haste, but Thumblinghad long ago got into a third corner, and was crying, "Ho, ho, here amI!" And thus he made fools of them, and drove them so long round aboutthe treasure-chamber that they were weary and went away. Then by degreeshe threw all the thalers out, dispatching the last with all his might,then hopped nimbly upon it, and flew down with it through the window. Therobbers paid him great compliments. "Thou art a valiant hero," said they;"wilt thou be our captain?"
Thumbling, however, declined, and said he wanted to see the worldfirst. They now divided the booty, but the little tailor only asked fora kreuzer because he could not carry more.
Then he once more buckled on his sword, bade the robbers goodbye, andtook to the road. First, he went to work with some masters, but he hadno liking for that, and at last he hired himself as man-servant in aninn. The maids, however, could not endure him, for he saw all they didsecretly, without their seeing him, and he told their master and mistresswhat they had taken off the plates, and carried away out of the cellar,for themselves. Then said they, "Wait, and we will pay thee off!" andarranged with each other to play him a trick. Soon afterwards when one ofthe maids was mowing in the garden, and saw Thumbling jumping about andcreeping up and down the plants, she mowed him up quickly with the grass,tied all in a great cloth, and secretly threw it to the cows. Now amongstthem there was a great black one, who swallowed him down without hurtinghim. Down below, however, it pleased him ill, for it was quite dark,neither was any candle burning. When the cow was being milked he cried,
"Strip, strap, strull,
Will the pail soon be full?"
But the noise of the milking prevented his being understood. After thisthe master of the house came into the cow-byre and said, "That cow shallbe killed to-morrow." Then Thumbling was so alarmed that he cried outin a clear voice, "Let me out first, for I am shut up inside her." Themaster heard that quite well, but did not know from whence the voicecame. "Where art thou?" asked he. "In the black one," answered Thumbling,but the master did not understand what that meant, and went out.
Next morning the cow was killed. Happily Thumbling did not meet with oneblow at the cutting up and chopping; he got among the sausage-meat. Andwhen the butcher came in and began his work, he cried out with all hismight, "Don't chop too deep, don't chop too deep, I am amongst it." Noone heard this because of the noise of the chopping-knife. Now poorThumbling was in trouble, but trouble sharpens the wits, and he sprangout so adroitly between the blows that none of them touched him, and heescaped with a whole skin. But still he could not get away, there wasnothing for it but to let himself be thrust into a black-pudding withthe bits of bacon. His quarters there were rather confined, and besidesthat he was hung up in the chimney to be smoked, and there time did hangterribly heavy on his hands.
At length in winter he was taken down again, as the black-pudding hadto be set before a guest. When the hostess was cutting it in slices, hetook care not to stretch out his head too far lest a bit of it should becut off; at last he saw his opportunity, cleared a passage for himself,and jumped out.
The little tailor, however, would not stay any longer in a house where hefared so ill, so at once set out on his journey again. But his libertydid not last long. In the open country he met with a fox who snappedhim up in a fit of absence. "Hollo, Mr. Fox," cried the little tailor,"it is I who am sticking in your throat, set me at liberty again." "Thouart right," answered the fox. "Thou art next to nothing for me, but ifthou wilt promise me the fowls in thy father's yard I will let thee go.""With all my heart," replied Thumbling. "Thou shalt have all thecocks and hens, that I promise thee." Then the fox let him go again,and himself carried him home. When the father once more saw his dearson, he willingly gave the fox all the fowls which he had. "For this Ilikewise bring thee a handsome bit of money," said Thumbling, and gavehis father the kreuzer which he earned on his travels.
"But why did the fox get the poor chickens to eat?" "Oh, you goose, yourfather would surely love his child far more than the fowls in the yard!"
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