Struwwelpeter’s Little Suck-a-Thumb Learns a Bloody Lesson
Conrad is a boy who has a thumb-sucking habit, as many children do. Like Harriet’s mother, she left him all alone one day. But before she left, she warned him that the “great tall tailor” goes around looking for thumb-suckers. When he finds these naughty children, he pulls out his scissors and lops those thumbs right off.
Sure enough, the moment his mother leaves, Conrad’s thumb is in his mouth – and soon the Great Tall Tailor bursts through the door. In a moment of nightmare-inducing gore, the tailor uses his massive scissors to cut Conrad’s thumbs off, leaving him standing in his spot with nothing but stumps. Instead of suffering a massive panic attack, Conrad’s mother just looks resigned at the sight of her son’s bloody stumps. She exclaims, “I knew he’s come to naughty little Suck-a-Thumb.”
