straw, where he sat as merry as you please. The two strangers were
all this time looking on, and did not know what to say for wonder. At
last one took the other aside and said, "That little urchin will make
our fortune if we can get him, and carry him about from town to town
as a show; we must buy him." So they went to the woodman and asked him
what he would take for the little man: "He will be better off," said
they, "with us than with you." "I won't sell him at all," said the
father, "my own flesh and blood is dearer to me than all the silver
and gold in the world." But Thumbling, hearing of the bargain they
wanted to make, crept up his father's coat to his shoulder, and
whispered in his ear, "Take the money, father, and let them have me;
I'll soon come back to you."

[Illustration]

So the woodman at last agreed to sell Thumbling to the strangers for
a large piece of gold. "Where do you like to sit?" said one of them.
"Oh! put me on the rim of your hat, that will be a nice gallery for
me; I can walk about there, and see the country as we go along."
So they did as he wished; and when Thumbling had taken leave of his
father, they carried him away with them. They journeyed on till it
began to be dusky, and then the little man said, "Let me get down,
I'm tired." So the man took off his hat and set him down on a clod of
earth in a ploughed field by the side of the road, But Thumbling ran
about amongst the furrows, and at last slipped into a mouse-hole.
"Good-night, masters," said he, "I'm off! mind and look sharp after me
the next time." They ran directly to the place, and poked the ends
of their sticks into the mouse-hole, but all in vain; Thumbling only
crawled further and further in, and at last it became quite dark, so
they were obliged to go their way without their prize, as sulky as you
please.

[Illustration]

When Thumbling found they were gone, he came out of his hiding-place.
"What dangerous walking it is," said he, "in this ploughed field! If
I were to fall from one of these great clods, I should certainly break
my neck." At last, by good chance, he found a large empty snail-shell.
"This is lucky," said he, "I can sleep here very well," and in he
crept. Just as he was falling asleep he heard two men passing, and one
said to the other, "How shall we manage to steal that rich parson's
silver and gold?" "I'll tell you," cried Thumbling. "What noise was
that?" said the thief, frightened. "I am sure I heard som