A Tiny Girl from Corn

There was once a woman who had the greatest longing for a little tiny child, but she had no idea where to get one.

so she went to the old witch and said to her, I do so long to have a little child, will you tell me where I can get one?

Oh, we shall be able to manage that, said the witch, here is a barley corn for you. it is not at all the same kind as that which grown in the peasant's field, or with which chickens are fed, plant it in a flower pot and you will see what will appear.

Thank you, oh, thank you, said the woman, and she gave the witch twelve pennies.

then went home and planted the barley corn, and a large, handsome flower sprang up at once, it looked exactly like a tulip, but the petals were tightly shut up, just as if they were still in bud.        

That  is a lovly flower, said the woman, and she kissed the pretty and yellow petals. as she kissed it, the flower burst open with a loud snap, it was a real tulip, you can see that, but right in the middle of the flower on the green stool sat a little tiny girl, most lovely and delicate, she was not more than an inch in height, so she was called Thumbelisa.

Her cradle was a smartly varnished walnut shell, with the blue petals violets for a mattress and a rose leaf to cover her, she slept in it at night, but during the day, she played about on the table where the woman had placed a plate, surrounded by a wreath of flowers on the outer edge with their stalks in water. A large tulip petal floated on the water and on this little Thumberlisa sat and sailed about from one side of the plate to the other. she had two white horsehairs for oars, it was a pretty sight.She could sing, too. with such delicacy and charm as was never heard before. 

One night, as she lay in her pretty bed, a great ugly toad hopped in at the window, for there was a broken pane.How hideious that great wet toad was, it hopped right down on the table where Thum lay fast asleep, under the red rose leaf.

There is a lovely wife for my son,said the toad, and then she took up the walnut shell where tum slept and hopped away with it through the window, down into the garden. A great broad stream ran through it, but just at the edge it was swampy and muddy, and it was her that the tolad lived with her son. How ugly and hideous he was too, exactly like his mother. that was all he had to say when he saw the lovly little girl in the walnut shell.

Almost Marrying the Toad   

Do not talk so loud or you will wake up, said the old toad. she might escape us yet, for she is as light as thistledown.We will put her on one of the broad water lily leaves out in the stream, it will be just like an island to her, she is so small and light. She won't be able to run away from there while we get the stateroom ready down under the mud, which you are to inhabit.

A great many water lilies grew in the stream, their broad green lieaves looked as if they were floating on the surface of the water. The leaf which was farthest from the shore was also the biggest, and to this one the old toad swam out, with the walnut shell in which little Thum lay.

The poor little creature woke up quite early in the morning, and when she saw where she was, she began to cry most bitterly, for there was water on every side of the big green leaf, and she could not reach the land at any point. 

The old toad sat in the mud decking out her abode with grasses and the buds of the yellow water lilies, so as to have it very nice for her new daughter in law, and then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf where Thum stood, they wanted to fetch her pretty bed to place it in the bridal chamber before they took her there,.

The old toad made a deep curtsey in the water before her, and said, here is my son, who is to be your husband, and you are to live together most comfortably down in the mud. was all the son could say.

Then they took the pretty little bed and swam away with it, but Thum sat quite alone on the green leaf and cried becuase she did not want to live with the uglt toad, or have her horrid son for a husband.
The little fish which swam about in the water and no doubt seen the toad and heard what she said, so they stuck their heads up, wishing, I suppose, to see the little girl.

As soon as they saw her, they were delighted with her, and were quite grieved to think that she was to go donw to live with the ugly toad.

No, that should never happen.

They flocked together down in the water round about the green stem which held the leaf she stood upon, and gnawed t it with their teeth, till it floated away down the stream, carrying Thum away where the toad could not follow her.

Thum sailed past place after place, and the little birds in the bushes saw her and sang, what a lovely little maid, the leaf with her on it floated farther and farther away, and in this manner reached foreign lands.

Disliked by the Chafers    

A pretty little white butterfly fluttered round and round her for some time and at last settled on the leaf, for it had taken a fancy to Thum.

She was so happy now, becasue the toad could not reach her and she was sailying through such lovely scenes.

then sun shone on the water and it looked like liquid gold.Then she took her sash and tied one end round the butterfly, and the other she made fast to the leaf which went gliding on quicker and quicker, and she with it, for she was standing on the leaf.

At this moment, a big cockchafer came flying along. he caught sight of her and in an instant, he fixed his claw round her slender waist and flew off with her up into a tree, but the green leaf floated down the stream and the butterfly with it, for he was tied to it and could not get loose.

Heavens, how frightened poor little Thm was when the cockchafer carried her up into the tree, but she was mot of all grieved about the pretty white butterfly which she had fastened to the leaf, if he could not succeed in getting loose, he would be starved to death.

but the cockchafer cared nothing for that, he settle with her on the largest leaf on the tree, and fed her with honey from the flowers, and he said that she was lovely although she was not a bit like a chafer.

Presently all the other chafers which lived in the tree came to visit them, they looked at Thum and they yound lady chafers twitched their feelers and said, she had also got two legs, what a good effect it had.

She has no feelers,said another, she is so slender in the waist, fie, she looks like a human being. how ugly she is, said all the mother chafers, and yet little Thum was so pretty.

That was certainly also the opinion of the cockchafer who had captured her, but when when all the others said she was ugly, he at last began to believe it too, and would not have anything to do with her, she might go wherever she liked.

They flew down from the tree with her and placed her on a daisy, where she cried becuase she was so ugly that the chafers would have nothing to do with her, and, after all, she was more beautiful than anything you could imagine, as delicate and transparent as the finest rose leaf.

Poor little thum lived all the summer quite alone in the wood, she plaited a bed of grass for herself and hung it up under a big dock leaf which sheltered her from the rain, she sucked the honey from the flowers for her food, and her drink was the dew which lay on the leaves in the morning. in this way, the summer and autumn passed, but then came the winter.

Living with a Field-mouse    

All the birds which used to sing so sweetly to her flew away, the great dock-leaf under which she had lived shrivelled up, leaving nothing but a dead yellow stalk, and she shivered with the cold, for her clothes were worn out.

she was such a tiny creature, poor little thum, she certainly must be frozen to death, it began to snow and every snowflake which fell upon her was like a whole shoveful upon one of us, for we are big and she was only one inch in height.

then she wrapped herself up in a withered leaf, but that did not warm her much, she trembled with the cold.

Close to the wood in which she had been living lay a large corfield, but the corn had long ago been carried away and nothing remained but the bare, dry stubble which stoop up out of the frozen ground. 

The stubble was quite a forest for her to walk about in, how she shook with the cold, then she came to the door of a filed mouse's home.

It was a little hole down under the stubble, the filed mouse lived so cosily and warm there, her whole room was full of corn, and she had a beautiful kitchen and larder besides. 

Poor thum stood just inside the door like any other poor begaar child and begged for a little piece of barley corn, for she had had nothing to eat for two whole days. 

Your poor little thing, said the field mouse, for she was at bottom a good old field mouse, come into my warm room and dine with me.

Then, as he took a fancy to Thumber, she said.

You may with pleasure stay with me for the winter, but you must keep my room clean and tidy and tell me stories, for I am very fond of them. and Thum did what the good old field mouse desired and was on the whole very comfortable. 

Now we shall soon have a visitor, said the filed mouse.

My neighbour generally comes to see me every weekday.

He is even better housed than I am.

his rooms are very large, and he wears a most beautiful black velvet coat, if only you could get him for husband, you would indeed be well settled, but he cannot see, you must tell him all the most beautiful stories you know. 

But thum did not like this, and she would have nothing to say to the neighbour, for he was a mole. he came and paid a visit in his black velvet coat.

He was very rich and wise, said the field mouse, and his home was twenty times as large as hers.

and he had much learning, but he did not like the sun or the beautiful flowers, in fact, he spoke slightingly of them, for he had never seen them. 

Thumber had to sing to him, and she sang both ,fly away, cockchafer, and a monk, he wandered through the meadow.

and then, the mole fell in love with her because of her sweet voice, but he did not say antyhing, for he was of a discreet turn of mind.

Reviving a Bird    

He had just made a long tunnel through the ground from his house to theirs, and he gave the field mouse and thumber leave to walk in it whenever they liked.

He told them not to be afraid of the dead bird which was lying in the passage.

It was a whole bird with feathers and beak which ahd probably died quite recently at the beginning of the winter, and was not entombed just where he had made his tunnel.

the mole took a piece of tinder wood in his mouth, for that shines like fire in the dark, and walked in front of them to light them in the long dark passage, when they came to the place where the dead bird lay, the mole thrust his broad nose up to the roof and pushed the earth up, so as to make a big hole through which the daylight shone.

In the middle of the floor lay a dead swallow, with its pretty wings closely pressed to its sides, and the legs and head drawn in under the feathers. no doubt the poor bird had died of cold. thumber was so sorry for it.

she loved all the little birds, for they had twittered and sung so sweetly to her during the whole summer, but the mole kicked it with his short legs and said, now it will pipe no more, it must be a miserable fate to be born a little bird.

Thank heaven, no child of mine can be a bir, a bird like that has nothing but its twitter and dies of hunger in the winter. 

yes, a sensible man, you may well say that, said the field mouse.What has a bird for all its twittering when the cold weather comes? it has to hunger and freeze, but then it must cut a dash. 
Thumber did not say antyhing, but when the others turned their back to the bird, she stooped down and stroked aside the feathers which lay over its head, and kissed its closed eyes.

Perhaps it was this very bird which sand so sweetly to me in the summer, she thought,what pleasure it gave me, the dear pretty bird, the mole now closed up the hole which let in the daylight and conducted the ladies to their home.

Thumber could not sleep at all in the night, so she had got up ouf of her bed and plaited a large handsome mat of hay, and then she carried it down and spread it all over the dead bird, and laid some soft cotton wool which she had found in the field mouse's room close round its sides, so that it might have a warm bed on the cold ground.

Goodbye, you sweet little bird, said she, goodbye, and thank you for your sweet sone through the summer, when all the tree were green and the sun shone warmly upon us.

Then she laid her head close up to the bird's breast, but was quite startled at a sound, as if something wasthumping inside it, it was the bird's heart, it was not dead but lay in a swoon, and now that it had been warmed it began to revive.