"How beautiful the little maiden is," she croaked. "She will make a
lovely bride for my handsome son." And she lifted the little cradle,
with Thumbelina in it, and hopped out through the broken window-pane,
down into the garden.
At the foot of the garden was a broad stream. Here, under the muddy
banks lived the old toad with her son.
How handsome she thought him! But he was really very ugly. Indeed, he
was exactly like his mother.
When he saw little Thumbelina in her tiny cradle, he croaked with
delight.
"Do not make so much noise," said his mother, "or you will wake the
tiny creature. We may lose her if we are not careful. The slightest
breeze would waft her far away. She is as light as gossamer."
Then the old toad carried Thumbelina out into the middle of the
stream. "She will be safe here," she said, as she laid her gently on
one of the leaves of a large water lily, and paddled back to her son.
"We will make ready the best rooms under the mud," she told him, "and
then you and the little maiden will be married."
Poor little Thumbelina! She had not seen the ugly big toad yet, nor
her ugly son.
When she woke up early in the morning, how she wept! Water all around
her! How could she reach the shore? Poor little Thumbelina!
Down under the mud the old toad was very busy, decking the best room
with buttercups and buds of water-lilies to make it gay for her little
daughter-in-law, Thumbelina.
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