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When the Ogre arrived, he emptied the sack, and sent the six little girls and the five little pigs all sprawling on to the floor, saying:

“These will last us some time. Cook the fattest, and put the rest into the cellar. And whilst you get dinner ready, I will take another stroll with the bag. Luck seldom comes singly.”

When he had gone, the Ogress looked over the children, and picked out the widow’s daughter, saying:

“You look the most good-humoured. And the best-tempered always make the best eating.”

So she set her down on a stool by the fire till the water should boil, and locked the others up in the cellar.

“Tears won’t put the fire out,” thought the little maid. So instead of crying she pulled out the old stocking, and went on with her darning. When the Ogress came back from the cellar she went up to her and looked at her work.

“How you darn!” she cried. “Now that’s a sort of thing I hate. And the Ogre does wear such big holes in his stockings, and his feet are so large, that, though my hand is not a small one, I cannot fill out the heel with my fist, and then who’s to darn it neatly I should like to know?”

“If I had a basin big enough to fill out the heel, I think I could do it,” said the little maid.

The Ogress scratched her big ear thoughtfully for a minute, and then she said:

“To lose a chance is to cheat oneself. Why shouldn’t this one darn while the others boil? Yes, I think you shall try. Six days ought to serve for mending all the stockings, though the Ogre hasn’t a whole pair left, and angry enough he’ll be. And when household matters are not to his mind he puts that big sack over my head, and ties it round my neck. And if you had ever done housework with your head in a poke, you’d know what it is! So you shall darn the stockings, and if you do them well, I’ll cook one of the others first instead of you.”

Saying which, the Ogress fetched one of the Ogre’s stockings, and the widow’s child put a big basin into the heel to stretch it, and began to darn. The Ogress watched her till she had put all the threads one way, and when she began to run the cross threads, interlacing them with the utmost exactness, the old creature was delighted, and went to fetch another child to be cooked instead of the widow’s.

When the other little girl came up, she cried and screamed so that the room rang with her lamentations, and the widow’s child laid down her needle and ceased working.

“Why don’t you go on darning?” asked the Ogress.

“Alas! dear mother,” said she, “the little sister’s cries make my heart beat so that I cannot darn evenly.”

“Then she must go back to the cellar for a bit,” said the Ogress. “And meanwhile I’ll sharpen the knife.”

So after she had taken back the crying child, and had watched the little girl, who now darned away as skilfully as ever, the Ogress took down a huge knife from the wall, and began to sharpen it on a grindstone in a corner of the kitchen. As she sharpened the knife, she glanced from time to time at the little maid, and soon perceived that she had once more ceased working.

“Why don’t you go on darning?” asked the Ogress.

“Alas! dear mother,” said the child, “when I hear you sharpening that terrible knife my hands tremble so that I cannot thread my needle.”

“Well, it will do now,” growled the Ogress, feeling the edge of the blade with her horny finger; and, having seen the darning-needle once more at work, she went to fetch up one of the children. As she went, she hummed what cookmaids sing–

“Dilly, dilly duckling, come and be killed!”