More English Fairy Tales

<SPAN name="The_Hobyahs" name='The_Hobyahs'></SPAN> <h2>The Hobyahs</h2> <br/> <p>Once there was an old man and woman and a little girl, and they all lived in a house made of hempstalks. Now the old man had a little dog named Turpie; and one night the Hobyahs came and said, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off his tail." So in the morning the old man cut off little dog Turpie's tail.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus140_1.jpg' width-obs='380' height-obs='185' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /><br/> </center> <p>The next night the Hobyahs came again, and said, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off one of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off one of little dog Turpie's legs.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus140_2.jpg' width-obs='333' height-obs='170' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /><br/> </center> <p>The next night the Hobyahs came again, and said, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off another of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off another of little dog Turpie's legs.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus140_1.jpg' width-obs='380' height-obs='185' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /><br/> </center> <p>The next night the Hobyahs came again, and said, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off another of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off another of little dog Turpie's legs.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus140_2.jpg' width-obs='333' height-obs='170' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /><br/> </center> <p>The next night the Hobyahs came again, and said, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off another of his legs." So in the morning the old man cut off another of little dog Turpie's legs.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus140_1.jpg' width-obs='380' height-obs='185' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /><br/> </center> <p>The next night the Hobyahs came again, and said, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!" But little dog Turpie barked so that the Hobyahs ran off; and the old man said, "Little dog Turpie barks so that I cannot sleep nor slumber, and if I live till morning I will cut off little dog Turpie's head." So in the morning the old man cut off little dog Turpie's head.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus140_2.jpg' width-obs='333' height-obs='170' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /><br/> </center> <p>The next night the Hobyahs came again, and said, "Hobyah! Hobyah! Hobyah! Tear down the hempstalks, eat up the old man and woman, and carry off the little girl!" And when the Hobyahs found that little dog Turpie's head was off they tore down the hempstalks, ate up the old man and woman, and carried the little girl off in a bag.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus144.jpg' width-obs='500' height-obs='292' alt='"...carried the little girl off in a bag."' border='0' /> </center> <p>And when the Hobyahs came to their home they hung up the bag with the little girl in it, and every Hobyah knocked on the top of the bag and said, "Look me! look me!" And then they went to sleep until the next night, for the Hobyahs slept in the daytime.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus145_1.jpg' width-obs='325' height-obs='251' alt='"...every Hobyah knocked on the top of the bag..."' border='0' /> </center> <p>The little girl cried a great deal, and a man with a big dog came that way and heard her crying. When he asked her how she came there and she told him, he put the dog in the bag and took the little girl to his home.</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus145_2.jpg' width-obs='325' height-obs='271' alt='...he put the dog in the bag...' border='0' /> </center> <p>The next night the Hobyahs took down the bag and knocked on the top of it, and said "Look me! look me!" and when they opened the bag&mdash;</p> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus146_1.jpg' width-obs='500' height-obs='372' alt='"...the big dog jumped out..."' border='0' /> </center> <table align='center' border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' width='500' summary="This table was introduced simply to format the illustrations around the text, similar to how it appeared in the original book."> <tr> <td> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus146_2.jpg' width-obs='130' height-obs='158' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /> </center> </td> <td> <p>the big dog jumped out and ate them all up; so there are no Hobyahs now.</p> </td> <td> <center> <ANTIMG src='images/illus146_3.jpg' width-obs='147' height-obs='158' alt='Hobyah!' border='0' /> </center> </td> </tr> </table> <hr style='width: 65%;' /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />