Once upon a time there was a man called Old-Bovetje. He had a lot of children to take care of. He was afraid of the wolf, and so were his children. One day Old-Bovetje urgently had to go out, and he feared that, while he was away, the wolf would come and eat his children. After all, that was what the wolf would love to do. Old-Bovetje decided to hide all of his children very well, so that the wolf would be unable to find them.

He put one on the table, one under the table, one on the chimney, one under the chimney, one in the box bed, [1] one under the box bed, one on the chair, one under the chair, one in the cooking pot, one on the cooking pot, one on the milk jug, one in the milkjug, and one under the milk jug. All in all, the children were hidden extremely well.

Now Old-Bovetje said to his children: "If the wolf comes knocking on the door, calling 'Little children, little children, open up!', don't open the door. Reply: 'I am afraid to, because the wolf will b-b-bite me.' Will you promise me that?"

"Yes, Old-Bovetje!" all the children yelled, "we promise."

"Fine," Old-Bovetje said, "good-bye then, my little children!"

"Good-bye, Old-Bovetje," the children said, and Old-Bovetje went out.

The children all sat there quietly and did not dare to move an inch, although particularly the young boy in the milk jug and the little girl under the cooking pot were extremely short of breath. They sincerely hoped that the wolf would not come, but sure enough, after ten minutes, they heard knocking on the door – a very loud knock on the door – and a deep wolf's voice howling: "Little children, little children, open uh-up!"

The children were scared stiff.

Finally, the one in the milk jug answered: "I am af-f-fraid to, because the wolf will b-b-bite me."

The wolf repeated his awful howling three more times and the children repeated their answer, because they didn't want to be bitten by the wolf.

In the end, the wolf got fed up with this game – he had a lot of things to do that afternoon, and this whole matter had lasted too long to suit him. He took a little run up and blew with all his might. The door – as if out of sheer terror – burst open with a tremendous bang.

The wolf entered and ate all the children, even the one in the milk jug. Of course, this meal made the wolf extremely fat – so fat that he could barely button up his overcoat.

All of a sudden, Old-Bovetje returned home. In one quick glance he understood what had happened and shouted: "Where, where are my little children?"

Nobody answered.

"You ate them all, didn't you?" Old-Bovetje said to the wolf, "yes, I can tell you did."

Then Old-Bovetje took a large knife that was lying on the table and cut the belly of the wolf open. One after another the children hopped out, cheerful, alive, and well. What a joy that was! Old-Bovetje embraced them all, and he gave the wolf needle and thread to stitch up his belly again. The wolf left and never returned again, while Old-Bovetje and all of his children lived happily ever after. This now, is the true history of Old-Bovetje.