Now, just as Tom came flying back to King Arthur’s court, the cook
happened to be passing with the king’s great bowl of frumenty, a dish
the king was very fond of. Unfortunately the little fellow fell plump
into the middle of it, splashing the hot frumenty in the cook’s face. The
cook, in a rage at Tom for frightening and scalding him, ran to tell the
king that Tom had jumped into his Majesty’s favorite dish out of idle
mischief.
The king’s anger was terrible. He ordered Tom to be seized and tried. No
one dared plead for him, so the king commanded that his head be cut off.
A crowd followed the headsman to see it done. The headsman lifted his
ax. Poor little Tom fell a-trembling and looked about for some means of
escape. In the crowd he saw a miller with his mouth open, like the booby
he was. At a bound Tom leaped into the miller’s mouth. He sprang in so
nimbly that no one, not even the miller himself, saw where he went. So,
as the headsman could not find Tom to take off Tom’s head, he, like a
sensible man, shouldered his ax and went home; and the miller went back
to his mill.
When Tom heard the miller at work in the mill, he knew he was far away
from the court and entirely safe, so he immediately set about getting
out. He began to roll and tumble about in such an alarming way that
the miller took to bed and sent for a doctor. When the doctor arrived,
Tom began to dance and sing, and the doctor, as much frightened as the
miller, sent in hot haste for five more doctors and twenty learned men.
While the six doctors and the twenty learned men were putting their wise
heads together, the miller happened to yawn. Seizing the chance, Tom took
another jump, but out of the miller’s mouth this time, and alighted safe
on his feet in the middle of a table near the bed. Well, when the miller
saw the little bit of a creature that had tormented him, it was his turn
to fall into a rage at Tom. He laid hands on him, opened the window, and
threw him into the river.
And a second time Tom was swallowed by a fish! A large salmon swimming
along snapped him up. A fisherman caught the salmon and sold it in the
market for a great lord’s table. But when the lord saw it he thought it
such a fine fish that he made a present of it to King Arthur. So when the
cook cut open the fish he found poor Tom and ran to the king with him
to make sure that he should not escape again. But the king was busy and
ordered Tom to be kept locked up until he should send for him.
The cook was determined that Tom should not get away, so he put him
into a mouse trap closely wired. When Tom had spent a week in the trap
peeping through the wires, the king sent for him. But to the cook’s
disappointment and Tom’s great delight, his anger had gone. He forgave
Tom for falling into the frumenty, and made him again his dwarf, to make
fun for him and the court.