Thumbelina

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There was once a woman who lived in a tiny cottage which had the most beautiful garden in the world. She was very happy tending her garden, but over time she became sad. She had no children who could share her garden with her. She decided to ask the old witch in her village for help.

The old witch pulled a tiny bag out of a fold in her cloak. “Plant these seeds and tend to them carefully every day. Soon you will have your wish, “said the witch.

The woman was overjoyed. The next day she planted the seeds in a sunny corner of her garden. She watered and watched over the seeds every day.

Before long, he seeds grew into a beautiful patch of wildflowers. In the center of the wildflower patch grew a beautiful tulip. The flower was so lovely that the woman could not resist bending down to smell it. As she knelt in front of the flower, its petals suddenly opened. The woman found a tiny girl sitting inside!

“ You are the most beautiful child I have ever seen! And you are hardly even as big as my thumb. Would you like to stay with me in my garden?” asked the woman.

“Oh yes!” replied the tiny girl.

I will call you Thumbelina,” said the woman, bursting with joy. Tiny Thumbelina and her mother lived very happily in the garden all summer long.

Thumbelina loved to play in the little pond in the middle of the garden, so her mother made her a tiny boat out of a maple leaf. Her mother sat by the side of the pond and read stories to her while she played.

Sometimes, Thumbelina sang as she rowed. She had the most beautiful voice.

One day, a frog was hopping by the garden pond. He heard Thumbelina’s lovely voice. When she saw the tiny girl rowing her maple leaf boat he said. “I must take her away to my lily pad to be my wife”.

The frog watched and waited until Thumbelina’s mother went inside the cottage. Then the frog jumped out from where he had been hiding and captured Thumbelina.

The frog carried Thumbelina away to the river where he lived and placed her on a lily pad. “Rest here while I go and make the plans for our wedding, “said the frog.

Thumbelina did not want to be the wife of a frog. She wanted to be back home with her mother. She began to cry.

When the fish in the river saw Thumbelina crying, they decided to help her. The fish nibbled through the stem of the lily pad until it broke free and floated down in the river, far away from the frog.

Thumbelina flowed gently down the river until finally the lily pad came to rest on the grassy bank of a meadow.

She lived for a while in the meadow, but soon the days began to get chilly. Autumn was coming. Leaves began to fall from the trees.

One cold day, Thumbelina walked until she found a small burrow inside a tree. She poked her head inside to see if anyone lived there.

Inside the little burrow lived a friendly old field mouse. The burrow was snug and cozy.

“Excuse me”, said Thumbelina quietly, “may I come into your warm burrow for a moment?”

The old field mouse almost never had any visitors in autumn, and was happy to have one. The field mouse invited Thumbelina to stay with her for the winter. Thumbelina sang song and told stories, while the field mouse cooked their dinner or sewed by the fire.

One day it began to snow lightly. Thumbelina had never seen snow before, so she opened the door. But outside she saw a young sparrow with a broken wing. He was shivering and he looked sad.

Thumbelina and the field mouse helped the sparrow into the burrow and fed him some soup and mended his wing.

Thumbelina, the sparrow, and the field mouse passed the winter together. Soon the days were warm and sunny. The sparrow decided it was time to leave.

“Thumbelina,” he said, “you saved my life. I would like to help you find your mother.” Thumbelina said goodbye to the field mouse and climbed on the top of the sparrow. She held on tightly as he flew high above the trees.

“Do you think we will find my mother?” Thumbelina asked the sparrow.

“Yes but first I have something special to show you,” said the sparrow. He flew deep into the forest. All around them beautiful flowers blossomed. They landed and soon a lily opened. Out from the lily stepped a tiny boy. He wore a crown on his head, and he landed a pair of shiny wings.

“I am the Prince of the Flowers,” said the boy.” Stay here and live with us.”

The Magic Window

Once upon a time there was a little boy who became very ill. He had to spend all day in bed, unable to move. Because other children weren't allowed to come near him, he suffered greatly, and spent his days feeling sad and blue.
There wasn't much he could do except look out of the window. Time passed, and his feeling of despair just grew. Until one day he saw a strange shape in the window. It was a penguin eating a sausage sandwich. The penguin squeezed in through the open window, said "good afternoon" to the boy, turned around, and left again.
Of course, the boy was very surprised. He was still trying to work out what had happened, when outside his window he saw a monkey in a nappy, busy blowing up a balloon. At first the boy asked himself what that could possibly be, but after a while, as more and more crazy-looking characters appeared out the window, he burst out laughing and found it hard to stop.
Anyone wanting to stop laughing would never be helped by seeing a pig playing a tambourine, an elephant jumping on a trampoline, or a dog wearing a pair of glasses and talking about nothing except politics. The little boy didn't tell anyone about this because who would have believed him? Even so, those strange characters ended up putting joy back in his heart, and in his body. Before long, his health had improved so much that he was able to go back to school again.
There he got to talk to his friends, and tell them all the strange things he had seen. While he was talking to his best friend he saw something sticking out of his friend's school bag. The boy asked his friend what it was, and he was so insistent that finally his friend had to show him what was in the bag:
There, inside, were all the fancy-dress suits and disguises that his best friend had been using to try to cheer the little boy up!
And from that day on, the little boy always did his best to make sure that no one felt sad and alone.