Kabanata Kabanata 36 · Thumbling

. Thumbling

There was once a poor peasant who sat in the evening by the hearth and

poked the fire, and his wife sat and span. Then said he, “How sad it is

that we have no children! With us all is so quiet, and in other houses

it is noisy and lively.”

“Yes,” replied the wife, and sighed, “even if we had only one, and it

were quite small, and only as big as a thumb, I should be quite

satisfied, and we would still love it with all our hearts.” Now it so

happened that the woman fell ill, and after seven months gave birth to

a child, that was perfect in all its limbs, but no longer than a thumb.

Then said they, “It is as we wished it to be, and it shall be our dear

child;” and because of its size, they called it Thumbling. They did not

let it want for food, but the child did not grow taller, but remained

as it had been at the first, nevertheless it looked sensibly out of its

eyes, and soon showed itself to be a wise and nimble creature, for

everything it did turned out well.

One day the peasant was getting ready to go into the forest to cut

wood, when he said as if to himself, “How I wish that there was any one

who would bring the cart to me!” “Oh father,” cried Thumbling, “I will

soon bring the cart, rely on that; it shall be in the forest at the

appointed time.” The man smiled and said, “How can that be done, thou

art far too small to lead the horse by the reins?” “That’s of no

consequence, father, if my mother will only harness it, I shall sit in

the horse’s ear and call out to him how he is to go.” “Well,” answered

the man, “for once we will try it.”

When the time came, the mother harnessed the horse, and placed

Thumbling in its ear, and then the little creature cried, “Gee up, gee

up!”

Then it went quite properly as if with its master, and the cart went

the right way into the forest. It so happened that just as he was

turning a corner, and the little one was crying, “Gee up,” two strange

men came towards him. “My word!” said one of them, “What is this? There

is a cart coming, and a driver is calling to the horse and still he is

not to be seen!” “That can’t be right,” said the other, “we will follow

the cart and see where it stops.” The cart, however, drove right into

the forest, and exactly to the place where the wood had been cut. When

Thumbling saw his father, he cried to him, “Seest thou, father, here I

am with the cart; now take me down.” The father got hold of the horse

with his left hand and with the right took his little son out of the

ear. Thumbling sat down quite merrily on a straw, but when the two

strange men saw him, they did not know what to say for astonishment.

Then one of them took the other aside and said, “Hark, the little

fellow would make our fortune if we exhibited him in a large town, for

money. We will buy him.” They went to the peasant and said, “Sell us

the little man. He shall be well treated with us.” “No,” replied the

father, “he is the apple of my eye, and all the money in the world

cannot buy him from me.” Thumbling, however, when he heard of the

bargain, had crept up the folds of his father’s coat, placed himself on

his shoulder, and whispered in his ear, “Father do give me away, I will

soon come back again.” Then the father parted with him to the two men

for a handsome bit of money. “Where wilt thou sit?” they said to him.

“Oh just set me on the rim of your hat, and then I can walk backwards

and forwards and look at the country, and still not fall down.” They

did as he wished, and when Thumbling had taken leave of his father,

they went away with him. They walked until it was dusk, and then the

little fellow said, “Do take me down, I want to come down.” The man

took his hat off, and put the little fellow on the ground by the

wayside, and he leapt and crept about a little between the sods, and

then he suddenly slipped into a mouse-hole which he had sought out.

“Good evening, gentlemen, just go home without me,” he cried to them,

and mocked them. They ran thither and stuck their sticks into the

mouse-hole, but it was all lost labour. Thumbling crept still farther

in, and as it soon became quite dark, they were forced to go home with

their vexation and their empty purses.

When Thumbling saw that they were gone, he crept back out of the

subterranean passage. “It is so dangerous to walk on the ground in the

dark,” said he; “how easily a neck or a leg is broken!” Fortunately he

knocked against an empty snail-shell. “Thank God!” said he. “In that I

can pass the night in safety,” and got into it. Not long afterwards,

when he was just going to sleep, he heard two men go by, and one of

them was saying, “How shall we contrive to get hold of the rich

pastor’s silver and gold?” “I could tell thee that,” cried Thumbling,

interrupting them. “What was that?” said one of the thieves in fright,

“I heard some one speaking.” They stood still listening, and Thumbling

spoke again, and said, “Take me with you, and I’ll help you.”

“But where art thou?” “Just look on the ground, and observe from whence

my voice comes,” he replied. There the thieves at length found him, and

lifted him up. “Thou little imp, how wilt thou help us?” they said. “A

great deal,” said he, “I will creep into the pastor’s room through the

iron bars, and will reach out to you whatever you want to have.” “Come

then,” they said, “and we will see what thou canst do.” When they got

to the pastor’s house, Thumbling crept into the room, but instantly

cried out with all his might, “Do you want to have everything that is

here?” The thieves were alarmed, and said, “But do speak softly, so as

not to waken any one!” Thumbling however, behaved as if he had not

understood this, and cried again, “What do you want? Do you want to

have everything that is here?” The cook, who slept in the next room,

heard this and sat up in bed, and listened. The thieves, however, had

in their fright run some distance away, but at last they took courage,

and thought, “The little rascal wants to mock us.” They came back and

whispered to him, “Come, be serious, and reach something out to us.”

Then Thumbling again cried as loudly as he could, “I really will give

you everything, just put your hands in.” The maid who was listening,

heard this quite distinctly, and jumped out of bed and rushed to the

door. The thieves took flight, and ran as if the Wild Huntsman were

behind them, but as the maid could not see anything, she went to strike

a light. When she came to the place with it, Thumbling, unperceived,

betook himself to the granary, and the maid, after she had examined

every corner and found nothing, lay down in her bed again, and believed

that, after all, she had only been dreaming with open eyes and ears.

Thumbling had climbed up among the hay and found a beautiful place to

sleep in; there he intended to rest until day, and then go home again

to his parents. But he had other things to go through. Truly, there is

much affliction and misery in this world! When day dawned, the maid

arose from her bed to feed the cows. Her first walk was into the barn,

where she laid hold of an armful of hay, and precisely that very one in

which poor Thumbling was lying asleep. He, however, was sleeping so

soundly that he was aware of nothing, and did not awake until he was in

the mouth of the cow, who had picked him up with the hay. “Ah,

heavens!” cried he, “how have I got into the fulling mill?” but he soon

discovered where he was. Then it was necessary to be careful not to let

himself go between the teeth and be dismembered, but he was

nevertheless forced to slip down into the stomach with the hay. “In

this little room the windows are forgotten,” said he, “and no sun

shines in, neither will a candle be brought.” His quarters were

especially unpleasing to him, and the worst was, more and more hay was

always coming in by the door, and the space grew less and less. Then at

length in his anguish, he cried as loud as he could, “Bring me no more

fodder, bring me no more fodder.” The maid was just milking the cow,

and when she heard some one speaking, and saw no one, and perceived

that it was the same voice that she had heard in the night, she was so

terrified that she slipped off her stool, and spilt the milk. She ran

in great haste to her master, and said, “Oh heavens, pastor, the cow

has been speaking!” “Thou art mad,” replied the pastor; but he went

himself to the byre to see what was there. Hardly, however had he set

his foot inside when Thumbling again cried, “Bring me no more fodder,

bring me no more fodder.” Then the pastor himself was alarmed, and

thought that an evil spirit had gone into the cow, and ordered her to

be killed. She was killed, but the stomach, in which Thumbling was, was

thrown on the midden. Thumbling had great difficulty in working his

way; however, he succeeded so far as to get some room, but just as he

was going to thrust his head out, a new misfortune occurred. A hungry

wolf ran thither, and swallowed the whole stomach at one gulp.

Thumbling did not lose courage. “Perhaps,” thought he, “the wolf will

listen to what I have got to say,” and he called to him from out of his

stomach, “Dear wolf, I know of a magnificent feast for you.”

“Where is it to be had?” said the wolf.

“In such and such a house; thou must creep into it through the

kitchen-sink, and wilt find cakes, and bacon, and sausages, and as much

of them as thou canst eat,” and he described to him exactly his

father’s house. The wolf did not require to be told this twice,

squeezed himself in at night through the sink, and ate to his heart’s

content in the larder. When he had eaten his fill, he wanted to go out

again, but he had become so big that he could not go out by the same

way. Thumbling had reckoned on this, and now began to make a violent

noise in the wolf’s body, and raged and screamed as loudly as he could.

“Wilt thou be quiet,” said the wolf, “thou wilt waken up the people!”

“Eh, what,” replied the little fellow, “thou hast eaten thy fill, and I

will make merry likewise,” and began once more to scream with all his

strength. At last his father and mother were aroused by it, and ran to

the room and looked in through the opening in the door. When they saw

that a wolf was inside, they ran away, and the husband fetched his axe,

and the wife the scythe. “Stay behind,” said the man, when they entered

the room. “When I have given him a blow, if he is not killed by it,

thou must cut him down and hew his body to pieces.” Then Thumbling

heard his parents, voices and cried, “Dear father, I am here; I am in

the wolf’s body.” Said the father, full of joy, “Thank God, our dear

child has found us again,” and bade the woman take away her scythe,

that Thumbling might not be hurt with it. After that he raised his arm,

and struck the wolf such a blow on his head that he fell down dead, and

then they got knives and scissors and cut his body open and drew the

little fellow forth. “Ah,” said the father, “what sorrow we have gone

through for thy sake.” “Yes father, I have gone about the world a great

deal. Thank heaven, I breathe fresh air again!” “Where hast thou been,

then?” “Ah, father, I have been in a mouse’s hole, in a cow’s stomach,

and then in a wolf’s; now I will stay with you.” “And we will not sell

thee again, no, not for all the riches in the world,” said his parents,

and they embraced and kissed their dear Thumbling. They gave him to eat

and to drink, and had some new clothes made for him, for his own had

been spoiled on his journey.

38 The Wedding of Mrs. Fox

FIRST STORY

There was once on a time an old fox with nine tails, who believed that

his wife was not faithful to him, and wished to try her. He stretched

himself out under the bench, did not move a limb, and behaved as if he

were stone dead. Mrs. Fox went up to her room, shut herself in, and her

maid, Miss Cat, sat by the fire, and did the cooking. When it became

known that the old fox was dead, wooers presented themselves. The maid

heard some one standing at the house-door, knocking. She went and

opened it, and it was a young fox, who said,

“What may you be about, Miss Cat?

Do you sleep or do you wake?”

She answered,

“I am not sleeping, I am waking,

Wouldst thou know what I am making?

I am boiling warm beer with butter so nice,

Will the gentleman enter and drink some likewise?”

“No, thank you, miss,” said the fox, “what is Mrs. Fox doing?” The maid

replied,

“She sits all alone,

And makes her moan,

Weeping her little eyes quite red,

Because old Mr. Fox is dead.”

“Do just tell her, miss, that a young fox is here, who would like to

woo her.” “Certainly, young sir.”

The cat goes up the stairs trip, trap,

The door she knocks at tap, tap, tap,

“Mistress Fox, are you inside?”

“Oh yes, my little cat,” she cried.

“A wooer he stands at the door out there.”

“Tell me what he is like, my dear?”

“But has he nine as beautiful tails as the late Mr. Fox?” “Oh, no,”

answered the cat, “he has only one.”

“Then I will not have him.” Miss Cat went downstairs and sent the wooer

away. Soon afterwards there was another knock, and another fox was at

the door who wished to woo Mrs. Fox. He had two tails, but he did not

fare better than the first. After this still more came, each with one

tail more than the other, but they were all turned away, until at last

one came who had nine tails, like old Mr. Fox. When the widow heard

that, she said joyfully to the cat,

“Now open the gates and doors all wide,

And carry old Mr. Fox outside.”

But just as the wedding was going to be solemnized, old Mr. Fox stirred

under the bench, and cudgelled all the rabble, and drove them and Mrs.

Fox out of the house.

SECOND STORY

When old Mr. Fox was dead, the wolf came as a wooer, and knocked at the

door, and the cat who was servant to Mrs. Fox, opened it for him. The

wolf greeted her, and said,

“Good day, Mrs. Cat of Kehrewit,

“How comes it that alone you sit?

What are you making good?”

The cat replied,

“In milk I’m breaking bread so sweet,

Will the gentleman please come in and eat?”

“No, thank you, Mrs. Cat,” answered the wolf. “Is Mrs. Fox not at

home?”

The cat said,

“She sits upstairs in her room,

Bewailing her sorrowful doom,

Bewailing her trouble so sore,

For old Mr. Fox is no more.”

The wolf answered,

“If she’s in want of a husband now,

Then will it please her to step below?”

The cat runs quickly up the stair,

And lets her tail fly here and there,

Until she comes to the parlour door.

With her five gold rings at the door she knocks,

“Are you within, good Mistress Fox?

If you’re in want of a husband now,

Then will it please you to step below?

Mrs. Fox asked, “Has the gentleman red stockings on’ and has he a

pointed mouth?” “No,” answered the cat. “Then he won’t do for me.”

When the wolf was gone, came a dog, a stag, a hare, a bear, a lion, and

all the beasts of the forest, one after the other. But one of the good

points which old Mr. Fox had possessed, was always lacking, and the cat

had continually to send the wooers away. At length came a young fox.

Then Mrs. Fox said, “Has the gentleman red stockings on, and has he a

little pointed mouth?” “Yes,” said the cat, “he has.” “Then let him

come upstairs,” said Mrs. Fox, and ordered the servant to prepare the

wedding-feast.

“Sweep me the room as clean as you can,

Up with the window, fling out my old man!

For many a fine fat mouse he brought,

Yet of his wife he never thought,

But ate up every one he caught.”

Then the wedding was solemnized with young Mr. Fox, and there was much

rejoicing and dancing; and if they have not left off, they are dancing

still.