How She Came to the Woman
Once a woman wished she had a very little child, but she did not know where to get one. So she went to an old witch and said, “I wish I had a very little child. Can you tell me where I might get one?”
“Oh, that I can easily,” said the old witch. “Here is a barleycorn for you. It is not the kind that grows in everyone’s field and the chickens eat. Put it into a flower pot, and you shall see what you shall see.”
“Thank you,” said the woman, and she gave the witch twelve shillings, for that was the price of the barleycorn.
Well, the woman planted the barleycorn. And immediately there grew up a great handsome flower. It was like a tulip, but the petals were tightly closed as if it were still a bud.
“What a beautiful flower,” cried the woman, and she kissed its yellow and red leaves. “Pop,” the flower opened. It was a real tulip, but in the middle, there upon the green velvet stamens sat a tiny maiden, lovely as a fairy, and only half a thumb’s height. So her mother called her Thumbelina.
And that is how she got her.
THUMBELINA
How She is Carried Off by the Toad
One night as Thumbelina lay sleeping in her pretty walnut-shell cradle, there came creeping through the open window an old Toad. He hopped straight down the table where Thumbelina lay.