Click image for full-size
My six-year-old daughter loves hearing stories about children who misbehave. We struck gold with the short stories by Dr. Heinrich Hoffmann, the author of Struwwelpeter: Merry Stories and Funny Pictures, a well-known 1845 book with ten stories about naughty children and the grave consequences they received for their unseemly actions and habits.
From my cursory research I have learned that Hoffmann wrote stories about Frank the Liar, Pauline the Pyromaniac, Tom the Thief, Lazy Charlotte, Envious Minny, The Dirty Child, Slovenly Betsy, Idle Fritz, Simple Hans, and Truant Peter, among others.
One of his strangest stories is “The Crow-Biddy,” a one-pager that I came across in the excellent 1955 book, “The Illustrated Treasury of Children’s Literature.” The ending can be interpreted in several ways, and my wife, kids, and I have enjoyed discussing our pet theories with each other. I’ll add my interpretation (and my wife’s and kids’) after others here have had a chance to add their two cents in the comments.