Thumbelina

Once upon a time, a kind woman wished very much for a child of her own. A wise old woman gave her a barley seed. "Plant this," she said. The woman planted it in a flowerpot, and up grew a beautiful red flower, like a tulip. "What a lovely flower," she said, and she kissed its petals. Pop! The flower opened. And sitting in the middle was a tiny girl, no bigger than a thumb. So the woman called her Thumbelina.

Thumbelina slept in a walnut-shell cradle with a rose-petal blanket. In the daytime, she rowed a tulip-petal boat across a plate of water, using two white horse hairs as oars. And she sang in a voice so sweet and soft that everyone who heard her smiled. But one night, while she was sleeping, a big wet toad hopped in through the open window. "What a pretty wife she'd be for my son!" croaked the toad, and she carried the walnut shell away to the river.

In the morning, Thumbelina woke up on a big green lily pad in the middle of the river. "Croak, croak, you'll marry my son," said the toad. Thumbelina did not want to marry a toad at all, and she began to cry. The little fish in the river heard her. "She is too sweet to live in the mud," they said. So they nibbled through the stem of the lily pad, and away it floated down the river, carrying Thumbelina far, far away.

All summer long, Thumbelina lived alone in the big forest. She wove a little bed from grass and hung it under a large leaf to keep off the rain. She ate sweet nectar from the flowers and drank the morning dew from the leaves. The birds sang to her, and she sang back. But then the summer ended. The leaves fell, the wind blew cold, and snowflakes began to fall. Each snowflake was as big as a pillow to tiny Thumbelina.

Shivering, Thumbelina knocked on a little door under the ground. It was the home of an old field mouse. "You poor little thing," said the field mouse kindly. "Come into my warm room and share my dinner." Thumbelina stayed all winter. She swept the floor and told stories, and the mouse was very fond of her. But the mouse's neighbour, a rich mole in a black velvet coat, wanted to marry her. He was very grand, but he hated sunshine and flowers, and Thumbelina did not love him.

One day, in the mole's dark tunnel, Thumbelina found a swallow lying very still. "He is so cold," she whispered. She wove a soft blanket from hay and tucked it around him. Every night, she brought him water in a leaf. Slowly, the swallow grew warm and strong again. "Thank you, little one," he said. "You have saved me." When spring came, the swallow said, "Come with me, Thumbelina. Sit on my back, and I will fly you to a sunny land."

Thumbelina thought of the dark tunnel and the grumpy mole. "Yes," she said, "I will come!" She said a kind goodbye to the field mouse, and she climbed onto the swallow's back. Up, up they flew, over forests and mountains, over the shining blue sea. The air grew warm and sweet. At last they came to a land full of flowers, with a white palace beside a lake, and the swallow set her down on a beautiful white blossom.

In the middle of the flower sat a tiny prince, no bigger than Thumbelina, with a little golden crown and clear shining wings. In every flower there lived a tiny flower person, and he was their king. "Welcome," he said with a smile. All the flower people brought gifts, and the best gift was a pair of shimmering wings. Now Thumbelina could fly from flower to flower! She had found friends just her size, and a home full of sunshine. And the swallow sang her a happy song, every evening, as she fell asleep in a rose. Good night.