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There once was a woman who wished for a little girl.
She grew older and older, but her wish seemed like it
would never come true, until one evening when she
was visited by a fairy with magic seeds.
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The woman planted the magic seeds in a flower pot
just before drifting off to sleep.
She dreamed dreams of days spent
with a daughter of her very own.
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When the woman woke, a tulip-like flower had grown up from
the magic seeds. The woman thought the flower was so
beautiful that she bent down to kiss its petals. Just as she did,
the flower blossomed. Sitting inside was a girl so tiny, she could
sit on the woman's thumb, and so she was named Thumbelina.
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The woman built Thumbelina a walnut-shell bed
with flower-petal bedding. To keep her busy in the day,
Thumbelina had a tea cup boat with grass oars
to sail around a mixing bowl pond.
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Thumbelina slept so soundly from
sailing all day that when one night a toad
hopped into her room, she didn't even wake.
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The toad looked at sleeping Thumbelina and thought,
“How beautiful she is! She would make a perfect bride for my son!”
So the toad put the walnut-shell bed, Thumbelina and all,
into her pocket and hopped home.
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The toad was ugly, but even uglier
was the swamp she lived in,
and ugliest of all was the toad's son
who always did just as his mother said.
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The toads took still sleeping Thumbelina out to
a lilli-pad in the middle of the pond while the mother
explained to her son that his bride to be must rest there
while they prepared the house for the wedding.
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Luckily, a family of fish overheard the toad's conversation
so when Thumbelina woke crying, they told her how
she got to the middle of a pond and of their plan
to take her far, far away from the toads.
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Thumbelina sailed for days and days on her lilli-pad boat
pushed by the fish family until one night a storm came
and tossed Thumbelina onto land. She wandered alone,
crying because everything reminded her of the loving home
the toad took her from.
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Eventually, Thumbelina came across a cottage and, desperate,
she knocked on the door. A friendly mouse answered and invited
Thumbelina inside. When Thumbelina told the mouse
of her horrible adventures, the mouse offered to clothe, feed,
and house Thumbelina in exchange for doing a few chores.
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One day, the mouse invited her friend, the mole, over for tea.
The mole fell deeply in love with Thumbelina and asked to take
her on a picnic in the woods. Thumbelina agreed even though
she did not love the mole the way he loved her.
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As Thumbelina and the mole walked through the trees, they
came across a weak and wounded sparrow. The mole tapped the
sparrow with his foot and said, "That will teach him to fly around
in the sky instead of roaming the ground like us."
Thumbelina was so disgusted with the mole's cruelty that she ran
back to the mouse's house, now positive she did not love
the mole, and hoping for some way to escape.
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Thumbelina gathered some food and supplies to bring
to the weak sparrow.The sparrow was so grateful
for Thumbelina's kindness that he offered to take Thumbelina
with him when he migrated for the spring. So, Thumbelina
and the sparrow came up with a plan.
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The sparrow flew over a beautiful garden
and gently placed Thumbelina in a blossom where
the King of the Flower Fairies was living.
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The King of the Flower Fairies fell deeply in love with Thumbelina,
just as the mole had, but the King was such a kindhearted
soul thatThumbelina fell deeply in love with him too
and eventually became Queen of the Flower Fairies.
