Tom Thumb

Once upon a time, there lived an old man and an old woman. One day, the old woman was chopping cabbage and accidentally cut off her finger. She wrapped it in a rag and placed it on the bench. Suddenly, she heard someone crying on the bench. She unwrapped the rag, and there lay a boy the size of a finger.

The old woman was amazed and frightened:
— Who are you?
— I am your son, born from your little finger.
The old woman picked him up and looked at him—the boy was tiny, barely visible from the ground. She named him Thumbelina.

He began to grow up with them. Though the boy didn’t grow in size, he was wiser than any grown-up.
One day, he said:
— Where is my father?
— He went to plow the field.
— I’ll go to him and help.
— Go ahead, my child.
He arrived at the field:
— Hello, father!
The old man looked around:
— What a miracle! I hear a voice, but I don’t see anyone. Who is speaking to me?
— I am your son. I’ve come to help you plow. Sit down, father, have a bite to eat and rest a little!

The old man was delighted and sat down to eat. Meanwhile, Thumbelina climbed into the horse’s ear and began plowing, telling his father:
— If anyone offers to buy me, sell me without fear: I won’t get lost, I’ll come back home.
Just then, a gentleman rode by, looked, and was astonished: the horse was walking, the plow was working, but there was no man in sight!
— I’ve never seen or heard of such a thing—a horse plowing by itself!
The old man said to the gentleman:
— What, are you blind? That’s my son plowing.
— Sell him to me!
— No, I won’t sell him: he’s the only joy and comfort my wife and I have, our Thumbelina.
— Sell him, old man!
— Well, give me a thousand rubles.
— Why so expensive?
— You can see for yourself: the boy is small but mighty, quick on his feet, and light on errands!

The gentleman paid a thousand rubles, took the boy, put him in his pocket, and rode home. But Thumbelina tore a hole in the pocket and escaped from the gentleman.

He walked and walked, and soon a dark night fell. He hid under a blade of grass right by the road and fell asleep. A hungry wolf came running and swallowed him. Thumbelina sat alive in the wolf’s belly, and he didn’t care a bit!

Things went badly for the gray wolf: whenever he saw a flock of sheep grazing and the shepherd asleep, just as he crept up to steal a sheep—Thumbelina would shout at the top of his lungs:
— Shepherd, shepherd, the smell of sheep! You’re asleep, and the wolf is stealing a sheep!
The shepherd would wake up, rush at the wolf with a club, and even set the dogs on him. The dogs would tear at the wolf—only shreds flew! The gray wolf barely escaped!

The wolf grew completely emaciated and was about to starve. He begged Thumbelina:
— Come out!
— Take me home to my father and mother, then I’ll come out.
The wolf had no choice. He ran to the village and jumped straight into the old man’s hut.
Thumbelina immediately jumped out of the wolf’s belly:
— Beat the wolf, beat the gray one!

The old man grabbed a poker, the old woman grabbed a fire-tong—and they began beating the wolf. They finished him off, skinned him, and made a fur coat for their son.

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Tom Thumb

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