A long time
ago and far, far away an old woman was sitting in her rocking chair
thinking how happy she would be if she had a child.
Then, she heard a knock at the door and
opened it. A lady was standing there and she said, "If you let me in, I
will grant you a wish." The
old woman let the woman in firstly because
she felt pity, secondly
because she knew what she'd wish for...a child.
After she washed the lady up and fed her, she saw that she was really
beautiful.
The lady slept soundly all night long
and then right before she left, she said, "Now, about your wish. What
do you want?"
The lady thought about most people's
wishes to be richest in the world, most powerful person, the smartest,
and the prettiest. But the old woman wished for something the lady
could not believe. She said, "I would like a child."
"What did you say?" she asked because
she was astonished at what the
old lady asked for. The old lady
repeated what she said. "I would like a child."
The lady then placed a tiny seed in the
old woman's hand and gave her instructions. "Plant this seed, water it
carefully, watch over it, and
give it your love. If you do all those
things, then you will have a child."
So, the old woman did all of those
things the lady had told her to. In a week, there was a beautiful
yellow flower in place of the seed. The next day, the flower bloomed.
Inside the flower was a beautiful little
girl who was the size of the woman's thumb so she a called her
Thumbelina. She made her a little dress out of golden threads.
Thumbelina slept in a walnut shell
and brought the old woman joy and
happiness.
But, one day when Thumbelina went down
for her nap, a frog hopped
through the open window and said, "You will
be a perfect bride for my son," and she took Thumbelina to a lily pad
and hopped off to find her son.
Thumbelina cried and some little guppies
heard her and chewed the roots off the lily pad to help her escape.
Thumbelina's lily pad floated away. A few hours later, she finally
stopped floating.
During the summer, she ate berries and
drank the dew off the leaves.
But then winter came and she needed
shelter. A kindly
mouse let her stay with it, but it said, "You'll have
to marry my friend, Mole, because I cannot keep you for another winter."
The next day she went to see Mole. In
one of tunnels, she found a
sick bird and said, "Poor thing, I will
bury it." Then she found out that it was still alive and she cared for
it until was ready to fly. It flew off. That fall she nearly had to
marry Mole. But
then she heard a familiar tweet
and an idea popped up
in the bird's head.
"You can come down to the warm country,"
said the bird, so Thumbelina hopped on
the bird's back and flew to the
warm country. The people there who were like her renamed her Erin. She
married a prince and she lived happily ever after.
THE END
