Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/170

 with her to fairyland. There he stayed several years.

While he was gone King Arthur and the queen and all the knights who knew Tom died, so when he came back he found a new king reigning, King Thunstone. All the courtiers flocked about the mannikin, and asked him who he was, and whence he came, and where he lived. Tom answered,

"My name is Tom Thumb,       From the fairies I've come.        When King Arthur shone,        This court was my home.        In me he delighted,        By him I was knighted; Have you never heard of Sir Thomas Thumb?"

The king was so charmed with this speech that he at once made Tom court dwarf. He ordered his builders to build Tom a gold palace a span high, with a door an inch wide, and he ordered his coach-*men to give Tom a coach drawn by six small mice. And so that he might sit upon the king's table close to his elbow, he ordered his cabinet makers to make Tom a little ivory chair.

So there was Tom back at court again and king's favorite.