One night as Thumbelina lay sleeping in her pretty walnut-shell cradle,
there came creeping through the open window an old Toad. He hopped
straight down the table where Thumbelina lay.
“Ah, she would make a lovely wife for my son,” said he. So he picked up
the cradle with Thumbelina in it, and hopped through the window and down
the garden to the brook. Here he lived with his son.
“What do you say to her for your bride, my son?” said he.
“Croak! croak! brek-kek-kek!” was all the son could say.
“Hush! Don’t speak so loudly, or she will awake,” whispered the old Toad.
“She might run away from us, for she is as light as swan’s down. We will
put her out in the brook on one of the broad lily leaves; that will be
just like an island to her, and she won’t be able to get away. Then we’ll
go and get the best room in the marsh in order, where you are to live and
keep house together.”
So they swam out with her, and when they came to a broad lily leaf lifted
her out of the cradle very gently without waking her, and swam back with
it, because they intended to place it in the bridal room.
Well, when Thumbelina woke and saw where she was she began to cry
bitterly, for there was water on every side of the great leaf and she
could not get to land at all. The little fishes swimming below stuck
their heads out of the water to see what was the matter. And when they
saw Thumbelina they thought her so pretty that they drew in their heads
and put them together under the water, and nibbled away at the stem
until the leaf was free. Then away sailed Thumbelina, far off from
the ridiculous toad and his son who could only say, “Croak, croak,
brek-kek-kek.”