Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/159

 "An oak leaf hat he had for a crown; His shirt of web by spiders spun; With jacket wove of thistle down; His trousers were of feathers done. His stockings, of apple-rind, they tie With eyelash from his mother's eye; His shoes were made of mouse's skin, Tann'd with the downy hair within."

So it was that Tom Thumb, the fairy mannikin, came into the world; and, wonderful to tell, he never grew any bigger than his father's thumb.

TOM THUMB

But as he got older he grew to be full of tricks.

He used to play cherry-stones with the boys. When he had lost all his own stones, he would creep slyly into his playmates' bags, quickly fill his pockets with their stones, creep out unseen, and join again in the game.

One day as he did this the boy who owned the bag caught him at it. "Ah, ha! my little Tommy," he cried, "at last I have caught you stealing my cherry-stones. I'll teach you to stop that." And he quickly drew the string, shutting Tom into the bag, and gave the bag such a shake that the poor little fellow's legs