The bee met him, and as she saw
that he was ill at ease, she said, “Bear, thou art really pulling a
very pitiful face; what has become of all thy gaiety?” “It is all very
well for thee to talk,” replied the bear, “a furious beast with staring
eyes is in Redskin’s house, and we can’t drive him out.” The bee said,
“Bear I pity thee, I am a poor weak creature whom thou wouldst not turn
aside to look at, but still, I believe, I can help thee.” She flew into
the fox’s cave, lighted on the goat’s smoothly-shorn head, and stung
her so violently, that she sprang up, crying “Meh, meh,” and ran forth
into the world as if mad, and to this hour no one knows where she has
gone.) 37 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.