as much amused with the notion 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. She liked the plan exceedingly, and declared their
wish should be speedily 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. Her majesty kissed the infant,
and, giving it the name of Tom Thumb, immediately summoned several
fairies from Fairyland, to clothe her new little favourite:--

"An oak-leaf hat he had for his crown,
His shirt it was by spiders spun:
With doublet wove of thistledown,
His trousers up with points were done;
His stockings, of apple-rind, they tie
With eye-lash pluck'd 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 neither; 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 drawing the
string tight round his neck, and shaking the bag, the cherry-stones
bruised Tom'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, and 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 his 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 tim