sers 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 tann'd with hair within."

Tom was never any bigger than his father's thumb, which was not a large
thumb either; but as he grew older he became very cunning, for which his
mother did not sufficiently correct him, and by this ill quality he was
often brought into difficulties. For instance, when he had learned to
play with other 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
boy to whom it belonged chanced to see him.

"Ah, ha, my little Tom Thumb!" said he, "have I caught you at your bad
tricks at last? Now I will reward you for thieving." Then he drew the
string tight around Tom's neck and shook the bag. The cherry-stones
bruised Tom Thumb's legs, thighs, and body sadly, which made him beg to
be let out and promise never to be guilty of such things any more.

Shortly afterwards Tom's mother was making a batter-pudding, and that
he might see how she mixed it, he climbed on the edge of the bowl; but
his foot happening to slip, he fell over head and ears into the batter.
His mother not observing him, stirred him into the pudding and popped
him into the pot to boil. The hot water made Tom kick and struggle; and
the mother, seeing the pudding jump up and down in such a furious
manner, thought it was bewitched; and a tinker coming by just at the
time, she quickly gave him the pudding. He put it into his budget and
walked on.

As soon as Tom could get the batter out of his mouth he began to cry
aloud, and so frightened the poor tinker that he flung the pudding over
the hedge and ran away from it as fast as he could. The pudding being
broken to pieces by the fall, Tom was released, and walked home to his
mother, who gave him a kiss and put him to bed.

Tom Thumb's mother once took him with her when she went to milk the cow;
and it being a very windy day, she tied him with a needleful of thread
to a thistle, that he might not be blown away. The cow, liking his
oak-leaf hat, took him and the thistle up at one mouthful. While the cow
chewed the thistle, Tom, terrified at her great teeth, which seemed
ready to crush him to pieces, roared, "Mother, mother!" as loud as he
could bawl.

"W