TOM THUMB

A poor woodman sat in his cottage one night, smoking his pipe by thefireside, while his wife sat by his side spinning. 'How lonely it is,wife,' said he, as he puffed out a long curl of smoke, 'for you and meto sit here by ourselves, without any children to play about and amuseus while other people seem so happy and merry with their children!''What you say is very true,' said the wife, sighing, and turning roundher wheel; 'how happy should I be if I had but one child! If it wereever so small--nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb--I should be veryhappy, and love it dearly.' Now--odd as you may think it--it came topass that this good woman's wish was fulfilled, just in the very way shehad wished it; for, not long afterwards, she had a little boy, who wasquite healthy and strong, but was not much bigger than my thumb. Sothey said, 'Well, we cannot say we have not got what we wished for, and,little as he is, we will love him dearly.' And they called him ThomasThumb.

They gave him plenty of food, yet for all they could do he never grewbigger, but kept just the same size as he had been when he was born.Still, his eyes were sharp and sparkling, and he soon showed himself tobe a clever little fellow, who always knew well what he was about.

One day, as the woodman was getting ready to go into the wood to cutfuel, he said, 'I wish I had someone to bring the cart after me, for Iwant to make haste.' 'Oh, father,' cried Tom, 'I will take care of that;the cart shall be in the wood by the time you want it.' Then the woodmanlaughed, and said, 'How can that be? you cannot reach up to the horse'sbridle.' 'Never mind that, father,' said Tom; 'if my mother will onlyharness the horse, I will get into his ear and tell him which way togo.' 'Well,' said the father, 'we will try for once.'

When the time came the mother harnessed the horse to the cart, and putTom into his ear; and as he sat there the little man told the beast howto go, crying out, 'Go on!' and 'Stop!' as he wanted: and thus the horsewent on just as well as if the woodman had driven it himself into thewood. It happened that as the horse was going a little too fast, and Tomwas calling out, 'Gently! gently!' two strangers came up. 'What an oddthing that is!' said one: 'there is a cart going along, and I hear acarter talking to the horse, but yet I can see no one.' 'That is queer,indeed,' said the other; 'let us follow the cart, and see where itgoes.' So they went on into the wood, till at last they came to theplace where the woodman was. Then Tom Thumb, seeing his father, criedout, 'See, father, here I am with the cart, all right and safe! now takeme down!' So his father took hold of the horse with one hand, and withthe other took his son out of the horse's ear, and put him down upon astraw, where he sat as merry as you please.

The two strangers were all this time looking on, and did not know whatto say for wonder. At last one took the other aside, and said, 'Thatlittle urchin will make our fortune, if we can get him, and carry himabout from town to town as a show; we must buy him.' So they went up tothe woodman, and asked him what he would take for the little man. 'Hewill be better off,' said they, 'with us than with you.' 'I won't sellhim at all,' said the father; 'my own flesh and blood is dearer to methan all the silver and gold in the world.' But Tom, hearing of thebargain they wanted to make, crept up his father's coat to his shoulderand whispered in his ear, 'Take the money, father, and let them have me;I'll soon come back to you.'

So the woodman at last said he would sell Tom to the strangers for alarge piece of gold, and they paid the price. 'Where would you like tosit?' said one of them. 'Oh, put me on the rim of your hat; that will bea nice gallery for me; I can walk about there and see the country as wego along.' So they did as he wished; and when Tom had taken leave of hisfather they took him away with them.

They journeyed on till it began to be dusky, and then the little mansaid, 'Let me get down, I'm tired.' So the man took off his hat, andput him down on a clod of earth, in a ploughed field by the side of theroad. But Tom ran about amongst the furrows, and at last slipped intoan old mouse-hole. 'Good night, my masters!' said he, 'I'm off! mind andlook sharp after me the next time.' Then they ran at once to the place,and poked the ends of their sticks into the mouse-hole, but all in vain;Tom only crawled farther and farther in; and at last it became quitedark, so that they were forced to go their way without their prize, assulky as could be.

When Tom found they were gone, he came out of his hiding-place. 'Whatdangerous walking it is,' said he, 'in this ploughed field! If I were tofall from one of these great clods, I should undoubtedly break my neck.'At last, by good luck, he found a large empty snail-shell. 'This islucky,' said he, 'I can sleep here very well'; and in he crept.

Just as he was falling asleep, he heard two men passing by, chattingtogether; and one said to the other, 'How can we rob that rich parson'shouse of his silver and gold?' 'I'll tell you!' cried Tom. 'What noisewas that?' said the thief, frightened; 'I'm sure I heard someone speak.'They stood still listening, and Tom said, 'Take me with you, and I'llsoon show you how to get the parson's money.' 'But where are you?' saidthey. 'Look about on the ground,' answered he, 'and listen where thesound comes from.' At last the thieves found him out, and lifted himup in their hands. 'You little urchin!' they said, 'what can you do forus?' 'Why, I can get between the iron window-bars of the parson's house,and throw you out whatever you want.' 'That's a good thought,' said thethieves; 'come along, we shall see what you can do.'

When they came to the parson's house, Tom slipped through thewindow-bars into the room, and then called out as loud as he could bawl,'Will you have all that is here?' At this the thieves were frightened,and said, 'Softly, softly! Speak low, that you may not awaken anybody.'But Tom seemed as if he did not understand them, and bawled out again,'How much will you have? Shall I throw it all out?' Now the cook lay inthe next room; and hearing a noise she raised herself up in her bed andlistened. Meantime the thieves were frightened, and ran off a littleway; but at last they plucked up their hearts, and said, 'The littleurchin is only trying to make fools of us.' So they came back andwhispered softly to him, saying, 'Now let us have no more of yourroguish jokes; but throw us out some of the money.' Then Tom called outas loud as he could, 'Very well! hold your hands! here it comes.'

The cook heard this quite plain, so she sprang out of bed, and ran toopen the door. The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails: andthe maid, having groped about and found nothing, went away for a light.By the time she came back, Tom had slipped off into the barn; and whenshe had looked about and searched every hole and corner, and foundnobody, she went to bed, thinking she must have been dreaming with hereyes open.

The little man crawled about in the hay-loft, and at last found a snugplace to finish his night's rest in; so he laid himself down, meaningto sleep till daylight, and then find his way home to his father andmother. But alas! how woefully he was undone! what crosses and sorrowshappen to us all in this world! The cook got up early, before daybreak,to feed the cows; and going straight to the hay-loft, carried awaya large bundle of hay, with the little man in the middle of it, fastasleep. He still, however, slept on, and did not awake till he foundhimself in the mouth of the cow; for the cook had put the hay into thecow's rick, and the cow had taken Tom up in a mouthful of it. 'Goodlack-a-day!' said he, 'how came I to tumble into the mill?' But he soonfound out where he really was; and was forced to have all his wits abouthim, that he might not get between the cow's teeth, and so be crushed todeath. At last down he went into her stomach. 'It is rather dark,' saidhe; 'they forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in; acandle would be no bad thing.'

Though he made the best of his bad luck, he did not like his quarters atall; and the worst of it was, that more and more hay was always comingdown, and the space left for him became smaller and smaller. At last hecried out as loud as he could, 'Don't bring me any more hay! Don't bringme any more hay!'

The maid happened to be just then milking the cow; and hearing someonespeak, but seeing nobody, and yet being quite sure it was the same voicethat she had heard in the night, she was so frightened that she fell offher stool, and overset the milk-pail. As soon as she could pick herselfup out of the dirt, she ran off as fast as she could to her master theparson, and said, 'Sir, sir, the cow is talking!' But the parsonsaid, 'Woman, thou art surely mad!' However, he went with her into thecow-house, to try and see what was the matter.

Scarcely had they set foot on the threshold, when Tom called out, 'Don'tbring me any more hay!' Then the parson himself was frightened; andthinking the cow was surely bewitched, told his man to kill her on thespot. So the cow was killed, and cut up; and the stomach, in which Tomlay, was thrown out upon a dunghill.

Tom soon set himself to work to get out, which was not a very easytask; but at last, just as he had made room to get his head out, freshill-luck befell him. A hungry wolf sprang out, and swallowed up thewhole stomach, with Tom in it, at one gulp, and ran away.

Tom, however, was still not disheartened; and thinking the wolf wouldnot dislike having some chat with him as he was going along, he calledout, 'My good friend, I can show you a famous treat.' 'Where's that?'said the wolf. 'In such and such a house,' said Tom, describing his ownfather's house. 'You can crawl through the drain into the kitchen andthen into the pantry, and there you will find cakes, ham, beef, coldchicken, roast pig, apple-dumplings, and everything that your heart canwish.'

The wolf did not want to be asked twice; so that very night he went tothe house and crawled through the drain into the kitchen, and then intothe pantry, and ate and drank there to his heart's content. As soon ashe had had enough he wanted to get away; but he had eaten so much thathe could not go out by the same way he came in.

This was just what Tom had reckoned upon; and now he began to set up agreat shout, making all the noise he could. 'Will you be easy?' said thewolf; 'you'll awaken everybody in the house if you make such a clatter.''What's that to me?' said the little man; 'you have had your frolic, nowI've a mind to be merry myself'; and he began, singing and shouting asloud as he could.

The woodman and his wife, being awakened by the noise, peeped througha crack in the door; but when they saw a wolf was there, you may wellsuppose that they were sadly frightened; and the woodman ran for hisaxe, and gave his wife a scythe. 'Do you stay behind,' said the woodman,'and when I have knocked him on the head you must rip him up with thescythe.' Tom heard all this, and cried out, 'Father, father! I am here,the wolf has swallowed me.' And his father said, 'Heaven be praised! wehave found our dear child again'; and he told his wife not to use thescythe for fear she should hurt him. Then he aimed a great blow, andstruck the wolf on the head, and killed him on the spot! and when he wasdead they cut open his body, and set Tommy free. 'Ah!' said the father,'what fears we have had for you!' 'Yes, father,' answered he; 'I havetravelled all over the world, I think, in one way or other, since weparted; and now I am very glad to come home and get fresh air again.''Why, where have you been?' said his father. 'I have been in amouse-hole--and in a snail-shell--and down a cow's throat--and in thewolf's belly; and yet here I am again, safe and sound.'

'Well,' said they, 'you are come back, and we will not sell you againfor all the riches in the world.'

Then they hugged and kissed their dear little son, and gave him plentyto eat and drink, for he was very hungry; and then they fetched newclothes for him, for his old ones had been quite spoiled on his journey.So Master Thumb stayed at home with his father and mother, in peace; forthough he had been so great a traveller, and had done and seen so manyfine things, and was fond enough of telling the whole story, he alwaysagreed that, after all, there's no place like HOME!