“What makes our Whiteling howl so?” they said. “We must go out and see what the trouble is.”

So all the family went out, and hearing the squealing of the swine, they hastened to the pigpen. Peeping in, they saw the Wolf and set upon him with clubs and fists, belaboring him so soundly that he barely escaped with a whole skin.

Waiting till the family had returned to bed, Isegrim crept back, and seizing Whiteling by the throat, “Aha!” he cried, “I have caught you now. You pledged me your word not to bark, and you broke your promise. No, I’ll never forgive you. Just look at me once, what a plight I’m in.”

Whiteling began to beg. “Ah, let me go, let me go, dear, sweet brother Isegrim; forgive me just this once; I’ll never do it [22]again; come again and steal whenever you like; you may be perfectly sure of me!”

“Will you ever play me another such trick?” asked Isegrim.

“Never, never again!” said Whiteling.

“Very well, then,” said the Wolf, “you may go free this once; but next time, remember, hold your tongue!”

A few days later Isegrim paid the swine a second visit, but he had hardly crept into the pen when Whiteling set up a howl so loud and clear that all the household sprang out of bed to see what was the matter. A second time they found the Wolf, fell upon him, and beat him half-dead. The unlucky visitor barely escaped with his life, and full o