One night while she lay in her pretty bed, a large, ugly, wet toad crept through a broken pane of glass in the window, and hopped down on the table where Thumbelina lay sleeping under the rose-leaf quilt.
“What a pretty little wife this would make for my son,” said the toad; and she took up the walnut shell in which Thumbelina lay asleep, and jumped through the window with it into the garden.
On the marshy bank of a broad stream in the garden lived the toad with her son. He was as ugly as his mother; and when he saw the lovely little maiden in the walnut shell, all he could say was, “Croak, croak, croak!”
“Don’t speak so loud, or you will wake her,” said the old toad; “and then she might run away, for she is light as swan’s-down. We will take her out in the stream and put her on one of the water-lily leaves; it will [[82]]be like an island to her, she is so light and small Then she can’t run away from us while we are preparing the apartments under the marsh, in which you are to live when you are married.”
Far out in the stream grew a number of water lilies, with broad green leaves which looked as if they were floating on the top of the water. The leaf that was farthest away was also the largest, and to this the old toad swam with the walnut shell in which Thumbelina lay still asleep. The tiny maiden woke very early in the morning, and began to cry bitterly when she saw where she was, for she could see nothing but water on every side of the large green leaf, and there was no way of reaching land.
Meanwhile the old toad was very busy down under the marsh, decking her room with rushes and yellow wild flowers to make it look pretty for her new daughter-in-law. Then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf on which she had placed Thumbelina. She wanted to get the pretty bed that [[83]]she might put it in the bridal chamber before Thumbelina herself came there. The old toad bowed low in the water and said, “Here is my son; he will be your husband, and you will live happily together in the marsh by the stream.”
“Croak, croak, croak!” was all the son could say for himself.
Then the toad took up the delicate little bed and swam away with it, leaving Thumbelina all alone on the green leaf, where she sat and wept. She could not bear to think [[84]]of living with the old toad and having her ugly son for a husband.
The little fishes who swam about in the water beneath had seen the toad and heard what she said; so now they lifted their heads above the water to look at the little maiden. As soon as they caught sight of her and saw how very pretty she was, they felt sorry that she must go to live with the ugly toads.