before.

One night, when she was lying in her pretty little bed, an old toad
crept in through a broken pane in the window. She was very ugly, clumsy,
and clammy; she hopped on to the table where Thumbelina lay asleep under
the red rose-leaf.

'This would make a beautiful wife for my son,' said the toad, taking up
the walnut-shell, with Thumbelina inside, and hopping with it through
the window into the garden.

There flowed a great wide stream, with slippery and marshy banks; here
the toad lived with her son. Ugh! how ugly and clammy he was, just like
his mother! 'Croak, croak, croak!' was all he could say when he saw the
pretty little girl in the walnut-shell.

'Don't talk so load, or you'll wake her,' said the old toad. 'She might
escape us even now; she is as light as a feather. We will put her at
once on a broad water-lily leaf in the stream. That will be quite an
island for her; she is so small and light. She can't run away from us
there, whilst we are preparing the guest-chamber under the marsh where
she shall live.'

Outside in the brook grew many water-lilies, with broad green leaves,
which looked as if they were swimming about on the water.

The leaf farthest away was the largest, and to this the old toad swam
with Thumbelina in her walnut-shell.

The tiny Thumbelina woke up very early in the morning, and when she saw
where she was she began to cry bitterly; for on every side of the great
green leaf was water, and she could not get to the land.

The old toad was down under the marsh, decorating her room with
rushes and yellow marigold leaves, to make it very grand for her new
daughter-in-law; then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf where
Thumbelina lay. She wanted to fetch the pretty cradle to put it into her
room before Thumbelina herself came there. The old toad bowed low in the
water before her, and said: 'Here is my son; you shall marry him, and
live in great magnificence down under the marsh.'

'Croak, croak, croak!' was all that the son could say. Then they took
the neat little cradle and swam away with it; but Thumbelina sat alone
on the great green leaf and wept, for she did not want to live with the
clammy toad, or marry her ugly son. The little fishes swimming about
under the water had seen the toad quite plainly, and heard what she had
said; so they put up their heads to see the little girl. When they saw
her, they thought her so pretty that they were very sorry she should
go down