ng to keep him safely this time, as he had so lately
given him the slip, clapped him into a mouse-trap and left him to amuse
himself by peeping through the wires for a whole week. When the king
sent for him, he forgave him for throwing down the furmenty, ordered
him new clothes, and knighted him.

"His shirt was made of butterflies' wings;
His boots were made of chicken skins,
His coat and breeches were made with pride,
A tailor's needle hung by his side;
A mouse for a horse he used to ride."

Thus dressed and mounted, he rode a-hunting with the king and nobility,
who all laughed heartily at Tom and his prancing steed. As they rode by
a farm-house one day, a cat jumped from behind the door, seized the
mouse and little Tom, and began to devour the mouse; however, Tom boldly
drew his sword and attacked the cat, who then let him fall. The king and
his nobles, seeing Tom falling, went to his assistance, and one of the
lords caught him in his hat; but poor Tom was sadly scratched, and his
clothes were torn by the claws of the cat. In this condition he was
carried home, and a bed of down was made for him in a little ivory
cabinet.

The queen of the fairies came and took him again to Fairyland, where she
kept him for some years; and then, dressing him in bright green, sent
him flying once more through the air to the earth, in the days of King
Thunstone. The people flocked far and near to look at him; and the king,
before whom he was carried, asked him who he was, whence he came, and
where he lived? Tom answered:

"My name is Tom Thumb;
From the fairies I come;
When King Arthur shone,
This court was my home;
In me he delighted;
By him I was knighted.
Did you ever hear of
Sir Thomas Thumb?"

The king was so charmed with this address that he ordered a little chair
to be made, in order that Tom might sit on his table, and also a palace
of gold a span high with a door an inch wide, for little Tom to live in.
He also gave him a coach drawn by six small mice. This made the queen
angry, because she had not a new coach too; therefore, resolving to ruin
Tom, she complained to the king that he had behaved very insolently to
her. The king sent for him in a rage. Tom, to escape his fury, crept
into an empty snail-shell and there lay till he was almost starved;
then, peeping out of the hole, he saw a fine butterfly settle on