The three little pigs built houses of different materials - straw, sticks, and bricks - to avoid being eaten by the wolf. The wolf blew down the houses of straw and sticks but could not blow down the brick house. Later, the clever pig tricked the wolf by hiding in a butter churn and telling him it was a large rolling object. When the wolf said he would climb down the chimney, the pig had water boiling, planning to drop it on the wolf.