Now he didn’t want her anymore, and put her down on a daisy at the foot of the tree and told her she was free to go wherever she wanted for all he cared. The May bug who had found Thumbelina still thought she was lovely, but as the others kept saying how ugly she was, he soon believed it too. She has only two legs! How disgusting!”Īll the other lady May bugs agreed. Two young May bugs wiggled their antennae and said, “Look at her. Soon all the other May bugs of the tree came calling on their little visitor. He told her she was the prettiest thing he had ever seen, even though she didn’t look like a May bug at all. The May bug put Thumbelina in the tree and gave her honey from the flowers. Thumbelina was terrified of what would happen next. The leaf and butterfly went on down the stream without Thumbelina. It spied Thumbelina, swooped down and picked her off the leaf and flew up into a tree with her. The butterfly flew and pulled Thumbelina quickly down the stream.Ī big May bug flew by. The other end she tied to her water-lily. She tied one end of the silk ribbon she wore around her waist to the butterfly. The girl laughed, for she was happy to have escaped from the frogs. It had taken a fancy to little Thumbelina. It drifted down the stream, carrying Thumbelina far away from the ugly frogs.Īs Thumbelina sailed down the stream, little birds sang, “Oh what a pretty girl.” Farther and farther floated the leaf down the stream, taking its little passenger to strange new lands.Ī white butterfly flew around in a circle and landed on the leaf. They nibbled and nibbled and soon the leaf was free. They decided they would do something and gathered around the stem that went from Thumbelina’s leaf to the bottom of the stream. When they saw her beauty it made them sad to think of her with the frogs in the mud. They poked their heads out of the water to look at the tiny girl. The little fishes swimming by in the water heard what the old frog had said. Poor Thumbelina sat on the water-leaf and wept, for she did not want to live with these ugly frogs. Then they took the walnut shell bed and swam away with it. You will both live very happily in the mud hole.” The old frog curtsied, and that is not easy while swimming then she said, “Meet my son who will be your new husband. After she finished, she and her ugly son swam out to the water-lily to fetch Thumbelina’s bed. The old frog was very busy down in the mud hole, decorating the walls with reeds and flowers that grew on shore. There was no way of getting to shore at all. When the poor girl awoke in the morning and saw where she was she began to cry bitterly. Upon that lily the old frog put Thumbelina’s little bed. The biggest of them was far out from shore. All their leaves seemed to float on the water. Out in the stream grew many water lilies. Then we will get your hole in the mud ready for your marriage.” “Don’t talk so loud! You’ll wake her!” scolded the mother frog, “She could run away and we would not be able to catch her, for she is as light as the feather of a swan. “Croak…Croak…Croak!” was all he said when he saw the beautiful little girl in the walnut shell. On the banks of the stream, where it was muddiest, lived the frog with her son. She grabbed the walnut shell in which Thumbelina slept, leaped out through the window and into the garden. “She will make a lovely wife for my son,” said the frog. She jumped down onto the table where Thumbelina lay sleeping under the rose petal. One night as she lay sleeping in her little bed a frog came through the window. Thumbelina would float and sing more beautifully than anyone has ever sung before. In the water floated a tulip petal on which Thumbelina could float from one side of the bowl to the other. The woman had put a bowl of water there with flowers all around it. Here she slept at night in the daytime she played on the table by the window. The shell of a walnut became Thumbelina’s cradle, the blue petals of violets her mattress, and a rose petal her cover. “I will call her Thumbelina,” thought the woman. She was so beautiful and so delicate, and exactly one inch long. In the center of the flower sat a tiny little girl. With a snap they opened and became a real tulip. “What a lovely flower,” said the woman as she kissed the red and yellow petals that were closed so tightly. It became a tulip that was ready to bloom. No sooner was it in the ground than it started to sprout. The woman paid the witch twelve gold coins and went home to plant the seed. “Plant this seed in the ground and see what happens.” She had no idea where to get one, so she went to an old witch and asked her: “Please, old witch, tell me where I can get a tiny little child.” Once upon a time there was a woman whose only wish was to have a tiny little child.
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