Thumbelina

One day a tulip bloomed in a flowerpot, and inside it sat a tiny girl no bigger than a thumb. So they called her Thumbelina. Her bed was a shiny walnut shell, and her blanket a rose petal.

The wind once carried Thumbelina far from home, to a wide pond. There she made friends with the little fish and with a glow-worm who lit the path for her in the evenings.

Autumn came and it turned cold. A field mouse let Thumbelina in to warm up and gave her a grain to eat. In the burrow lay a swallow, chilled through. The girl covered the bird with down and cared for it all winter long.

By spring the swallow was strong again. "Climb on my back," it said. And they flew over the fields to a warm country, where on every flower lived tiny people just like her, with clear little wings.

There Thumbelina was welcomed like family. They gave her a pair of wings and a flower with a soft bed inside.

That evening she snuggled into the petals, waved to the swallow, and closed her eyes. The air smelled of honey and grass. Goodnight.