One day Thumbkins was passing through the meadow and it began to rain. "Dear me! I shall get soaking wet!" Thumbkins cried as he hurried along.
A mamma meadow-lark, sitting upon her nest, saw Thumbkins running and called to him: "Come here, little man, and get beneath my wing and I will keep you warm and dry!"
So Thumbkins crawled beneath Mamma Meadow-Lark's wings and, snuggling down close to the bottom of the meadow-lark's nest, he found three tiny little baby meadow-larks. It was too dark for Thumbkins to see them, but he felt that the baby Meadow-Larks were as warm as toast.
Thumbkins kept very quiet, for the baby meadow-larks were sleepy little fellows, and before he knew it Thumbkins was sound asleep himself, with an arm around one of the baby birds.
Thumbkins did not know how long he had been asleep, but when he awakened the rain had ceased. Thumbkins knew it had stopped raining for he could no longer hear the rain drops pattering upon Mamma Meadow-Lark's back. So now he climbed out of the nest and looked about.
The ground about the Meadow-Lark's nest was covered with tiny puddles, and Mamma Meadow-Lark was soaking wet. She looked very uncomfortable. Her feathers stuck out in all directions and a drop of water fell from her head and rolled down her beak.
Thumbkins thought at first Mamma Meadow-Lark was crying, and he said: "Are you cold, Mamma Meadow-Lark?"
"Yes, indeed!" Mamma Meadow-Lark replied as she shook her ruffled feathers, sending the water flying in all directions.