for
cherry-stones, and had lost all his own, he used to creep into the
other boys' bags, fill his pockets, and come out again to play. But
one day, as he was getting out of a bag of cherry-stones, the boy to
whom it belonged chanced to see him.

[Illustration]

"Ah, ah! my little Tom Thumb," said the boy, "have I caught you at
your bad tricks at last? Now I will pay you off well for thieving."

Then drawing the string tight round his neck, and shaking the bag
heartily, the cherry stones bruised Tom's limbs and body sadly, which
made him beg to be let out, and promise never to be guilty of such
doings any more.

Shortly afterwards Tom's mother was making a batter pudding, and, that
he might see how she mixed it, he climbed up to the edge of the bowl,
but his foot happening to slip he fell over head and ears into the
batter, and his mother not observing him, stirred him into the pudding
and popped it all into the pot to boil. The hot water made Tom kick
and struggle; and his mother, seeing the pudding jump up and down,
thought it was bewitched. A tinker was going by just at the time, so
she gave him the pudding, and he put it into his budget and walked
away. As soon as Tom could get the batter out of his mouth he began to
cry aloud; this so frightened the poor tinker that he flung the
pudding over the hedge. The pudding being broken by the fall Tom was
released, and walked home to his mother, who gave him a kiss and put
him to bed.

Tom Thumb's mother once took him with her when she went to milk the
cow; it being a very windy day, she tied him with a needleful of
thread to a thistle. The cow, liking his oak-leaf hat, took him and
the thistle up at one mouthful. While the cow was chewing the thistle,
Tom, terrified at her great teeth, cried out, "Mother! mother!"

[Illustration]

"Where are you, Tommy, my dear Tommy?" said the mother.

"Here, mother; here in the red cow's mouth."

The mother began to cry and wring her hands; but the cow, surprised at
such odd noises in her throat, opened her mouth and let him drop out.
His mother clapped him into her apron and ran home with him.

[Illustration]

Tom's father made him a whip of barley-straw to drive the cattle with,
and one day in the field Tom slipped into a deep furrow. A raven
flying over picked him up with a grain of corn, and flew with him to
the top of the giant's castle by the seaside, where he left him. Old
Grumbo, the giant, came out soon afterwards