Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/103

 sat a tiny maiden, lovely as a fairy, and only half a thumb's height. So her mother called her Thumbelina.

And that is how she got her.

THUMBELINA

One night as Thumbelina lay sleeping in her pretty walnut-shell cradle, there came creeping through the open window an old Toad. He hopped straight down the table where Thumbelina lay.

"Ah, she would make a lovely wife for my son," said he. So he picked up the cradle with Thumbelina in it, and hopped through the window and down the garden to the brook. Here he lived with his son.

"What do you say to her for your bride, my son?" said he.

"Croak! croak! brek-kek-kek!" was all the son could say.

"Hush! Don't speak so loudly, or she will awake," whispered the old Toad. "She might run away from us, for she is as light as swan's down. We will put her out in the brook on one of the broad lily leaves; that will be just like an island to her, and she won't be able to get away. Then we'll go and get the best room in the marsh in order, where you are to live and keep house together."