f so much that he
brought on a fit of sickness, and his life was despaired of.

At this juncture the queen of the fairies came in a chariot, drawn by
flying mice, placed Tom by her side, and drove through the air without
stopping till they arrived at her palace. After restoring him to health
and permitting him to enjoy all the gay diversions of Fairyland, she
commanded a fair wind, and, placing Tom before it, blew him straight to
the court of King Arthur. But just as Tom should have alighted in the
courtyard of the palace, the cook happened to pass along with the king's
great bowl of furmenty (King Arthur loved furmenty), and poor Tom Thumb
fell plump into the middle of it and splashed the hot furmenty into the
cook's eyes. Down went the bowl.

"Oh, dear! Oh, dear!" cried Tom.

"Murder! murder!" bellowed the cook; and away poured the king's nice
furmenty into the kennel.

The cook was a red-faced, cross fellow, and swore to the king that Tom
had done it out of mere mischief; so he was taken up, tried, and
sentenced to be beheaded. Tom hearing this dreadful sentence and seeing
a miller stand by with his mouth wide open, he took a good spring and
jumped down the miller's throat, unperceived by all, even the miller
himself.

Tom being lost, the court broke up, and away went the miller to his
mill. But Tom did not leave him long at rest; he began to roll and
tumble about, so that the miller thought himself bewitched and sent for
a doctor. When the doctor came, Tom began to dance and sing. The doctor
was as much frightened as the miller and sent in great haste for five
more doctors and twenty learned men.

While all these were debating upon the affair, the miller (for they were
very tedious) happened to yawn, and Tom, taking the opportunity, made
another jump and alighted on his feet in the middle of the table. The
miller, provoked to be thus tormented by such a little creature, fell
into a great passion, caught hold of Tom, and threw him out of the
window into the river. A large salmon swimming by snapped him up in a
minute. The salmon was soon caught and sold in the market to a steward
of a lord. The lord, thinking it an uncommonly fine fish, made a present
of it to the king, who ordered it to be dressed immediately. When the
cook cut open the salmon he found poor Tom and ran with him directly to
the king; but the king, being busy with state affairs, desired that he
might be brought another day.

The cook, resolvi