"Oh, darling mother," said the second.

"Oh, darling, good mother," said the third.

"Oh, darling, good, sweet mother," said the fourth.

"Oh, darling, pretty, good, sweet mother," said the fifth.

"Oh, darling, pretty, good, sweet, clever mother," said the sixth.

"Oh, darling, pretty, good, sweet, clever, kindest little mother," said
the seventh.

So they begged for the pancake all around, the one more prettily than
the other, for they were so hungry and so good.

"Yes, yes, children, only bide a bit till it turns itself"--she ought to
have said, 'till I can get it turned,'--"and then you shall have some
lovely sweet milk pancake. Only look how fat and happy it lies there."

When the pancake heard all this it became afraid, and in a trice it
turned itself and tried to jump out of the pan, but it fell back into it
again, the other side up. When it had been fried a little on the other
side too, till it got firm and stiff, it jumped out of the pan to the
floor and rolled off like a wheel through the door and down the hill.

"Holloa! Stop, pancake!" and away ran the mother after it, with the
frying pan in one hand and the ladle in the other, as fast as she could,
and all the children behind her, while the old father on crutches limped
after them last of all.