The Wolf, the Mother, and Her Child

A hungry wolf was prowling about in search of food. By and by, attracted by the cries of a child, he came to a cottage. As he crouched beneath the window, he heard the mother say to the child, “Stop crying, do, or I’ll throw you to the Wolf.”
Thinking she really meant what she said, he waited there a long time in the expectation of satisfying his hunger. In the evening he heard the mother fondling her child and saying, “If the naughty Wolf comes, he shan’t get my little one. Daddy will kill him.”

The wolf got up in much disgust and walked away. “As for the people in that house,” said he to himself, “you can’t believe a word they say.”