His mother put Tom into the horse’s ear. The little man told the horse how to go, crying out, “Go on!” and “Stop!”. The horse went on just as well as if the woodman had driven it himself into the wood[23]. The horse was going a little too fast, and Tom was calling out, “Gently! gently!” when two strangers came up.
“Strange”!’ said one: “there is a cart going along, and I hear someone talking to the horse, but I can see no one.”
“Strange, indeed,” said the other; “let us follow the cart, and see where it goes.”
So they went on into the wood and came to the place where the woodman was.
Then Tom Thumb, seeing his father, cried out, “See, father, here I am with the cart, all right and safe!”
The two strangers did not know what to say. At last one said,
“That little boy will make us rich if we get him, and carry him about from town to town as a show. We must buy him!” So they went up to the woodman, and asked him what he would take for the little man.
“I won’t sell him at all,” said the father, “my own flesh and blood is dearer to me than all the silver and gold in the world.”
But Tom had a plan. He jumped to his father’s shoulder and whispered in his ear,
“Take the money, father, and let them have me. I’ll soon come back to you.”
At last the woodman said he would sell Tom to the strangers for a large piece of gold, and they paid the price.
“Where would you like to sit?” asked one of the strangers.
‘Oh, put me on your hat. I can walk about there and see the country as we go along.”
So they did as he wished.
They started their journey. When it was getting dark, then the little man said, “Let me get down, I’m tired.”
So the man took off his hat, and put him down. But Tom ran to an old mouse-hole and hid himself.
“Good night, my masters!” said he, “I’m off[24]! Look better after me the next time.”
The strangers tried to get him out of the mouse-hole, but they couldn’t. Tom only crawled farther and farther in. And at last it became quite dark, so that they went their way without their prize.
When Tom found they were gone, he came out of his hiding place.
“What dangerous walking it is,” said he.
At last he found a large empty snail-shell.
“This is lucky,” said he, “I can sleep here very well.”
Just as he was falling asleep, he heard two men talking to each other. And one said to the other, “How can we rob that rich man’s house?”
“I’ll tell you!” cried Tom.
“What is it?” said the thief, frightened, “I’m sure I heard someone speaking.”
They stood still listening, and Tom said,
“Take me with you, and I’ll show you how to get the money.”
“But where are you?” asked they.
“Look about on the ground,” answered he.
At last the thieves found him out, and lifted him up in their hands.
“You’re so small!” they said, “what can you do for us?”
“I can get into the house, and throw you out whatever you want.”
“Hm,” said the thieves; “yes, you can help us, come along.”
When they came to the rich man’s house, Tom slipped through the window-bars into the room. And then he cried loudly, “Will you have all that is here?”
The thieves were frightened, because Tom was very loud. He said, “Quiet! They may wake up!” But Tom cried out again,
“How much will you have? Shall I throw it all out?”
The cook woke up in the next room and listened. The thieves were frightened, but they said, “Stop making jokes, throw us out some money.”
Then Tom cried out as loud as he could, “Very well! Hold your hands! Here it comes.”
The cook heard it, so she jumped out of bed, and ran to open the door. The thieves ran off as if a wolf was at their tails. The cook found nothing, and she went to bed. She thought she had a dream with her eyes open.
The little man found a nice place in the hay to finish his night’s rest. He wanted to have a good sleep and then find his way home to his father and mother.
The cook woke up early to feed the cows and took a large bundle of hay[25], with the little man in the middle of it. He still slept on, and woke up only when he was in the mouth of the cow.
“It is very dark,” said he; “they forgot to build windows in this room to let the sun in.”
He was already in the cow’s stomach, and more and more hay was always coming down. And he didn’t have enough space, it became smaller and smaller. At last he cried out as loud as he could, “Don’t bring me any more hay! Don’t bring me any more hay!”
The cook heard someone speak. She was sure it was the same voice that she had heard in the night. She was so frightened that she ran off as fast as she could to her master, and said,
“Sir, sir, the cow is talking!”
But the master said, “Woman, you’re mad!”
However, he went with her into the cow-house, to see what was the matter.
At the moment they came in, Tom cried out, “Don’t bring me any more hay!”
The master was very frightened. And thinking the cow went mad he told his man to kill her. So the cow was killed, and thrown out upon a dunghill.
Tom tried to get out from the cow’s stomach, but that at that moment a hungry wolf jumped out, and swallowed up the whole stomach, with Tom in it and ran away.
Tom cried out, “My good friend, I can show you where you can eat well.”
“Where’s that?” said the wolf.
“In the house of a woodman,” said Tom, describing his father’s house. “You can get into the kitchen and then into the pantry. There you will find cakes, ham, beef, cold chicken, pig, apple-dumplings[26], and everything that your heart can wish.”
The wolf did not want to be asked twice[27]. So that very night he went to the house and got into the kitchen, and then into the pantry[28]. He ate and drank there a lot to the moment when he could not move.
This was just what Tom wanted. He began to cry and shout, making all the noise he could.
“Quiet!” said the wolf, “you’ll wake everybody up in the house.”
“What’s that to me?” said the little man; “you have eaten well, now I want be merry myself”; and he began, singing and shouting as loud as he could.
The woodman and his wife woke up and came closer to the pantry. They saw a wolf was there, and the woodman ran for his axe, and gave his wife a big knife.
“Stay behind,” said the woodman, “and when I have knocked him on the head you must rip him up with the knife.”
Tom heard all this, and cried out, “Father, father! I am here, the wolf has swallowed me.”
And his father