Thumbelina: The Warm Country

THUMBELINA — PART THREE: THE WARM COUNTRY

There was a woman who wanted a little child very much, but she did not have one. At last she went to a fairy and said, "I would so love to have a little child. Can you tell me where I can find one?"

"Oh, that can be easily done," said the fairy. "Here is a barleycorn. It is different from the ones that grow in the farmer's fields, the ones the chickens eat. Put it into a flower-pot, and see what happens."

"Thank you," said the woman. She gave the fairy twelve shillings, which was the price of the barleycorn. Then she went home and planted it. Right away, a large and beautiful flower grew up. It looked something like a tulip, but its leaves were tight and closed, as if it were still a bud. "It is a beautiful flower," said the woman. She kissed the red and golden leaves. While she did so, the flower opened, and she could see it was a real tulip. Inside the flower, sitting on the soft green center, was a very small and graceful little girl. She was not even as long as a thumb. They gave her the name Thumbelina, or Tiny, because she was so small.

A walnut shell, polished smooth, was her cradle. Her bed was made of blue violet leaves, with a rose petal for a blanket. She slept there at night. During the day she played on a table, where the woman had put a plate full of water. Around the plate were rings of flowers with their stems in the water. On the water floated a large tulip leaf, and that leaf was Tiny's boat. The little girl sat on it and rowed herself from side to side, using two oars made of white horsehair. It really was a very pretty sight. Tiny could also sing, so softly and sweetly that no one had ever heard anything like it.

One night, while she lay in her pretty bed, a large ugly wet toad crept in through a broken pane of glass in the window. It jumped right up onto the table where Tiny lay sleeping under her rose petal blanket.

"What a pretty little wife this would make for my son," said the toad. She picked up the walnut shell where little Tiny lay asleep, and jumped back through the window into the garden.

The toad lived with her son at the muddy edge of a wide stream in the garden. Her son was even uglier than she was. When he saw the pretty little girl in her tiny bed, all he could say was, "Croak, croak, croak."

"Don't speak so loud, or she will wake," said the toad. "She might run away, for she is as light as soft feathers. We will put her on one of the water lily leaves out in the stream. It will be like an island to her, she is so light and small. She will not be able to get away. While she is there, we will get the room ready under the marsh, where you two will live after you are married."

Far out in the stream grew many water lilies with big green leaves that floated on top of the water. The biggest leaf was the farthest away. The old toad swam out to it with the walnut shell, where little Tiny was still asleep. The tiny little girl woke very early in the morning. When she saw where she was, she began to cry hard. There was nothing but water all around the big green leaf, and no way to reach the land.

Meanwhile, the old toad was busy under the marsh. She was decorating her room with rushes and wild yellow flowers to make it look nice for her new daughter-in-law. Then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf where she had left poor little Tiny. She wanted to fetch the pretty bed so she could put it in the wedding room. The old toad bowed low in the water and said, "Here is my son. He will be your husband, and you will live happily with us in the marsh by the stream."

"Croak, croak, croak," was all her son could say. So the toad picked up the little bed and swam away with it, leaving Tiny all alone on the green leaf. Tiny sat there and cried. She could not bear the thought of living with the old toad and having the ugly son for a husband.

The little fish swimming in the water below had seen the toad and heard what she said. They lifted their heads above the water to look at the little girl. As soon as they saw her, they saw she was very pretty. They felt very sorry that she would have to go and live with the ugly toads. "No, that must never happen!" they said. They all swam together under the green leaf and bit through the stem that held it to the bottom. The leaf floated away down the stream, carrying Tiny far away, out of the toads' reach.

Tiny floated past many towns. The little birds in the bushes saw her and sang, "What a lovely little creature!" The leaf carried her farther and farther, on into other lands. A pretty little white butterfly kept flying around her, and at last it landed on the leaf. Tiny was glad, because now the toad could never reach her. The land she was sailing past was beautiful, and the sun shone on the water until it glittered like gold. She took off her little belt and tied one end of it around the butterfly, and tied the other end to the leaf. Now the leaf glided along much faster, and Tiny went with it.

Then a large flying beetle came past. The moment he saw her, he grabbed her around her tiny waist with his feet and flew with her up into a tree. The green leaf floated away down the stream, and the butterfly went with it, because he was tied to it and could not get free.

Oh, how frightened little Tiny was when the beetle flew with her up into the tree! And she felt especially sorry for the beautiful white butterfly tied to the leaf, because if he could not free himself he would starve. But the beetle did not worry about that at all. He sat down beside her on a large green leaf, gave her some honey from the flowers to eat, and told her she was very pretty, even though she did not look like a beetle. After a while, all the other beetles waved their feelers and said, "She only has two legs! How ugly that looks." "She has no feelers," said another. "Her middle is so thin. Ugh! She looks like a person."

"Oh, she is ugly," said all the lady beetles, even though Tiny was very pretty. The beetle who had taken her believed what the others said. He decided she was ugly and wanted nothing more to do with her. He flew down with her from the tree and put her on a daisy, and flew away. Tiny cried, because she thought she was so ugly that even the beetles would not have her. And all the while she was truly the loveliest little creature you could ever imagine, as soft and delicate as a beautiful rose petal.

For the whole summer, poor little Tiny lived all alone in the wide forest. She wove herself a bed from blades of grass and hung it up under a big leaf to keep off the rain. She sucked honey from the flowers for food, and every morning she drank the dew from their leaves. So the summer passed, and then the autumn. Then came the winter — the long, cold winter. All the birds who had sung to her so sweetly had flown away. The trees and flowers had dried up. The big clover leaf she had sheltered under was now rolled up and shrivelled. Nothing was left but a dry yellow stalk. She was terribly cold, for her clothes were torn, and she was so small and delicate that poor little Tiny was nearly frozen to death. It began to snow too. The snowflakes fell on her like a whole shovelful falling on one of us, for we are tall, but she was only an inch high. She wrapped herself up in a dry leaf, but it cracked and could not keep her warm, and she shook with cold.

Near the forest where she had been living there was a corn field, but the corn had been cut long ago. Nothing was left but bare dry stalks sticking up out of the frozen ground. Walking through them was like struggling through a big wood for poor little Tiny. Oh, how she shook with cold!

At last she came to the door of a field mouse, who had a little home under the corn stalks. The field mouse lived there in warmth and comfort, with a room full of corn, a kitchen, and a lovely dining room. Poor little Tiny stood at the door just like a little beggar girl, and asked for a small piece of barleycorn, because she had not had a single bite to eat for two days.

"You poor little thing," said the field mouse, who was truly a kind old field mouse. "Come into my warm room and eat with me." She was very pleased with Tiny, and she said, "You are very welcome to stay with me all winter if you like. But you must keep my