enant, both happy and contented in
the enjoyment of each other.

CHAPTER XII

TOM THUMB

In the days of King Arthur, Merlin, the most learned enchanter of his
time, was on a journey; and, being very weary, stopped one day at the
cottage of an honest ploughman to ask for refreshment. The ploughman's
wife, with great civility, immediately brought him some milk in a wooden
bowl, and some brown bread on a wooden platter. Merlin could not help
observing, that, although every thing within the cottage was
particularly neat and clean, and in good order, the ploughman and his
wife had the most sorrowful air imaginable. So he questioned them on the
cause of their melancholy, and learned that they were very miserable
because they had no children. The poor woman declared, with tears in her
eyes, that she should be the happiest creature in the world if she had a
son, although he were no bigger than his father's thumb. Merlin was much
amused with the thoughts of a boy no bigger than a man's thumb, and, as
soon as he returned home, he sent for the queen of the fairies (with
whom he was very intimate), and related to her the desire of the
ploughman and his wife to have a son the size of his father's thumb. The
queen of the fairies liked the plan exceedingly, and declared their wish
should speedily be granted. Accordingly the ploughman's wife had a son,
who in a few minutes grew as tall as his father's thumb. The queen of
the fairies came in at the window as the mother was sitting up in bed
admiring the child. The queen kissed the infant, and giving it the name
of Tom Thumb, immediately summoned several fairies from Fairy Land to
clothe her little new favourite:

"An oak leaf hat he had for his crown,
His shirt it was by spiders spun;
With doublet wove of thistle's down,
His trousers up with points were done.
His stockings, of apple rind, they tie
With eye-lash plucked from his mother's eye,
His shoes were made of a mouse's skin,
Nicely tanned, with the hair within."

Tom never was any bigger than his father's thumb, which was not a large
thumb either; but, as he grew older, he became very cunning and sly, for
which his mother did not sufficiently correct him, so that when he was
able to play with the boys for cherry stones, and had lost all his own,
he used to creep into the boys' bags, fill his pockets, and come out
again to play. But one day as he was getting out of a bag of cherry
stones, the