Thumbelina

A woman wanted a child very much, so a kind fairy gave her a special seed. She planted it, and a beautiful flower grew. When it opened, a tiny girl sat inside, no bigger than a thumb. The woman called her Thumbelina.

Thumbelina slept in a walnut shell and sailed on a plate of water with two flowers for oars. She sang so sweetly that everyone who heard her loved her. But one night, while she slept, an old toad took her away to be a wife for her ugly son.

Thumbelina cried on a green leaf in the river. Some kind fish felt sorry for her. They bit the stem of the leaf, and it floated away, far from the toad. A pretty butterfly helped to pull the leaf along the water.

Then a big beetle carried her up into a tree. But the other beetles said she was ugly because she had only two legs, so the beetle left her alone in the wide field. All summer Thumbelina lived alone, eating honey from the flowers.

Winter came, cold and hard. Thumbelina was freezing. A kind field mouse gave her a warm home under the ground. There she met a swallow, a bird that was hurt and cold. Thumbelina looked after him all winter until he was well again.

The field mouse wanted Thumbelina to marry a rich mole, but the mole lived always in the dark under the ground, and Thumbelina did not want that life. When spring came, the swallow was strong again. "Come with me," he said. "Sit on my back."

The swallow flew her to a warm, sunny land full of flowers. There, in the biggest flower, she met a tiny king, just her own size, with a crown and small wings. He asked her to be his queen. Thumbelina said yes, and at last she had found a home and a friend just right for her.