was shown as Tom Thumb's
monument, and the country folks never failed to
marvel at it when they came to church on the
Assize Sunday; but during some of the modern
repairs which have been inflicted on that
venerable building, the flagstone was displaced
and lost, to the great discomfiture of the
holiday visitants." Thus wrote an ancient and
learned scholar in illustration of the tendency
to give a local habitation and a name to our
favorite fancies. The version of the story
given by Miss Mulock in her _Fairy Book_ is the
one used here. It follows closely the rambling
events of the various chapbook and ballad
versions.

TOM THUMB

In the days of King Arthur, Merlin, the most learned enchanter of his
time, was on a journey; and being very weary, stopped one day at the
cottage of an honest ploughman to ask for refreshment. The ploughman's
wife with great civility immediately brought him some milk in a wooden
bowl and some brown bread on a wooden platter.

Merlin could not help observing that although everything within the
cottage was particularly neat and clean and in good order, the ploughman
and his wife had the most sorrowful air imaginable; so he questioned
them on the cause of their melancholy and learned that they were very
miserable because they had no children.

The poor woman declared with tears in her eyes that she should be the
happiest creature in the world if she had a son, although he were no
bigger than his father's thumb.

Merlin was 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 favorite.

"An oak-leaf hat he had for his crown;
His shirt it was by spiders spun;
With doublet wove of thistledown,
His trou