Chapter 131 130. Cheek

A couple have seven children.His father was a farmer, and the family was starving to death due to the famine.At night, the children fell asleep, but the parents were full of worries and couldn't sleep. "Well, my wife, this is a hard time," said the husband. "It breaks my heart to see the children go hungry." "It's quite miserable," replied the wife, "but what can we do?" "To-morrow, I'll go to the woods and take the children and leave them there. It's better to lose them all at once than to see them wear out like candles."

"Hush!" his wife reminded him, "be careful not to let them hear." "Don't worry, they're all asleep." However, the youngest of the seven children was not asleep.The kid was a hunchback named Chick, and he heard everything his parents had to say. When they got up in the morning, the mother called the children to her, adjusted their clothes, kissed them tearfully, and said, "Good boys, you are going out with Daddy today." They left home.Along the way, Chick picked up the small white stones he saw and put them in his pockets as he walked.They left the road and turned into the woods.Chick already knew what his father was going to do, so he threw small stones as he walked, so as to remember the path they had traveled.Deep in the woods, their father left them and went away.When it got dark, the children cried and screamed.Chick said loudly to his brothers, "What are you afraid of? You fools! I

Come lead the way, let's go home!" "Well, little brother," said the brothers, "what are we six doing?" "Just follow me." So, Chick walked out of the woods along the small white stone signpost, and when he came home at dawn, all seven of them were exhausted and half dead. "Dear children!" exclaimed the mother.She was very happy to see the children were back. "How did you get back?" "Chick showed us the way," the brothers replied. The children are still at home.But not long after, because the famine did not abate, my father decided to take them to the woods again and throw them away.Mother sold everything in the house and bought seven loaves.The next morning she gave each of the children a loaf of bread, kissed them good-bye, and sent them off with their father into the woods.

This time Father walked behind Chick to prevent him from throwing another white stone.But Chick used bread crumbs instead, which he crumbled in his pocket and scattered as he walked.In the evening, when the brothers found them left again in the woods, they all cried out, but Chick said, "Don't be afraid, we'll get home just as well this time," and he started looking for the crumbs.But the crumbs were removed by the ants, and the rest were eaten by the birds.In this way, Chick could no longer find his way home, and the brothers cried again. "Wait a minute," said Chick, climbing up the tallest tree like a little squirrel.He saw a light in the distance. "Let's go in that direction."

The seven brothers walked for a long time and came to a house.They knocked on the door, and it was the monster mother who opened the door and walked out.She drags her long hair like a rope, with spiral teeth and lantern-like eyes, she is really scarier than the legendary monster. "Oh, it's so late, where are you kids going?" "Ma'am," Chick replied, "we got lost, and we came here when we saw a light from you." "God, boys, I have to hide you, because when the monster father comes back, Will devour you in one gulp.I have roasted a sheep and fed him.If you keep quiet, I'll let you sleep with my kids, and I happen to have seven. "

The monster father came back and shouted as soon as he entered the house: "Yo, yo! I smell human flesh here." "That's what you always say!" said the wife. "Sit here and eat some delicious mutton I've roasted for you. Mind your own business and don't touch those poor children. Seven little brothers got lost and just now They came to us, and I took them in. We have seven children ourselves, who would want their children to suffer disasters.” "Then give me the lamb roast," said the monster father. "I'm tired and want to go to bed early."

Father Monster's seven children go to bed with a flower crown on their heads.They slept in a big bed, and Mother Goblin put Chick and his six older brothers at the foot of the bed.As soon as the monster mother left the bedroom, Chick wondered. "Why do her children wear flower crowns? There must be a reason for this." Thinking of this, Chic took off the flower crowns of the monster father's children and put them on his brothers and himself. No sooner had Chick done this than Papa Goblin tiptoed into the bedroom.Because it was very dark in the room, he went to the bed and bent over to feel for it.He touched the heads of Chick and his brothers, found the flower crown, and let the children go.Then he touched the heads of his children one by one, and, finding them without crowns, ate them up.In the dark, Chick was trembling with fear.The monster father swallowed his last son, licked his lips, and said, "Let my wife gossip about kindness and good deeds, I've eaten them anyway." And he went away.Chick immediately woke up the brothers: "Quick, let's get out of here!" They opened the window gently and jumped onto the ground outside.They ran, ran, through a wood, and finally hid in a cave.

The next morning, when the monster mother got up, she found that her seven sons and the seven lost children were gone; from the blood on the bed, she knew what had happened.She scratched her hair anxiously and shouted, "Devil! Murderer! Come and see what you've done!" The monster father rushed into the house to have a look, and was astonished. "Ah! Our own son doesn't wear a flower crown? What's the matter? Get me my big boots that run a hundred miles an hour, and I'm going to catch those little rascals and kill them alive Eat up!" He put on his boots, and looked about for the children, but could not find them, for they were hidden in the cave.

The monster father searched everywhere, was so tired that he lay down on the ground and fell asleep.It happened that the place where he slept was only a stone's throw away from the cave where the seven brothers were hiding.When Chick came out to look for food, he found the monster father lying on the ground.He hurried to call his brothers. "Quick, you all come! Get rid of him!" The seven brothers all showed their bread knives and stabbed at him, finally piercing the monster father's body with holes everywhere.They were sure that the monster father was dead, so they took off his big boots.The seven brothers all got into their big boots and hurried to the monster mother's house.

"Auntie," they said to the monster mother, "uncle sent us to tell you that he was taken by a gang of robbers. If you don't give the robbers all the money in the house, they will kill him Please trust us, you see, the uncle has also lent us the boots." The monster mother believed it, and gave all the money, diamonds and gold in the family to the seven brothers. "Children, of course I believe in you, go and save him." The seven brothers got into the big boots, returned home in one step, met their parents, and made a fortune for the family.Later, Chick left home for Naples and worked as a messenger with those boots that could run a hundred miles an hour, because there were no trains or ships at that time.In this way, the little hunchback made the whole family rich, and the family lived happily ever after.

(Otranto area)