“ Is it reasonable that persons of wit and sense should be worse off than those who have none? Can you pretend this,—you who are so wise and who wished so much to be? But come to the point, if you please. Except for my ugliness is there anything in me which displeases you? Do you object to my birth, my sense, my temper, or my manners?”
“Not at all,” said the Princess; “I like in you all that you have mentioned.”
“If that is the case,” replied Riquet with the Tuft, “I shall soon be happy, for you have the power to make me the most handsome of men.” ”

“ Now it happened that one of them stumbled over a tree stump. This jolted the coffin so sharply that the poisoned piece of apple which Snowdrop had bitten fell out of her throat. Before long she slowly opened her eyes, lifted up the lid of the coffin, and sat up alive once more.
“Oh, dear!” she cried, “where am I?”
The Prince answered joyfully, “You are with me,” and told her all that happened, saying as he finished the story: “I love you better than any one in the world. ”

“ That is the only thing in the world worth caring for,” the fir tree sighed.
In the autumn the woodcutters always came and cut down several of the tallest trees, and the young fir, which had now grown to a very good height, shuddered as the noble trees fell to the ground with a crash. After the branches were lopped off, the trunks looked so slender and bare that they could scarcely be recognized. Then the trees were placed, one upon another, on wagons, and dragged by horses out of the forest. ”

“ RIQUET WITH THE TUFT
There was once a queen who had a son so ugly and misshapen that it was questioned for a long time whether he was a human creature or not. A fairy who was present at his birth declared that he would be none the less amiable for all his ugliness, because he would have uncommon intelligence and wit. She added that he would have the power, by virtue of a gift which she had just bestowed upon him, to give the same talents which he possessed to the person whom he should love best. ”

“ Seated in a gallery from which she could see him coming, the White Cat awaited him.
“Well, King’s Son,” she said, “you have again returned without a crown.”
“Madam,” he replied, “your kindness has earned me one twice over, but I am persuaded that my father is unwilling to part with it himself.”
“No matter,” she said; “you must not give up trying to deserve it. As you must take back a lovely maiden next time, I will find you one that will gain you the prize. Now let us take no more care about the matter.”
Nothing passes more quickly than days spent without trouble or care. ”

“ Beautiful children ran along the roads playing [101] with gay butterflies. And as the swallow flew farther and farther south, everything became more and more beautiful.
At last they came to a blue lake, and by the side of it, shaded by magnificent trees, stood a palace of dazzling white marble, built in olden times. Vines clustered round its lofty pillars, and at the top were many swallows’ nests, and one of these was the home of the swallow who carried Thumbelina. ”

“ Fairies are not long in doing their business!
And now the King and Queen, having kissed their dear child without waking her, left the castle, issuing a proclamation that no one should come near it. These commands were not necessary, for in less than a quarter of an hour there grew up all around the park such a vast number of trees great and small, and of bushes and brambles, twining one within another, that neither man nor beast could pass through, and nothing could be seen but the very top of the towers of the palace, and that, too, only from a great distance. ”

“ Who lives with the seven dwarfs, odd and queer,
A thousand times fairer doth appear.”
Then she was startled and angry, for she knew that the mirror always spoke the truth, and she saw that the huntsman must have deceived her, and that Snowdrop was still alive. Once more she pondered day and night how she might destroy Snowdrop, for as long as she herself was not the fairest in all the land her jealous heart gave her no peace. At last she thought of a plan. She [140] stained her face and dressed herself like an old peddler woman, and was so changed that no one could have known her. ”

“ In autumn all the swallows fly away to warmer countries; but if one happens to linger it becomes so stiff with cold that it drops down as if it were dead, and then the snow comes and covers it.
Thumbelina trembled very much; she was quite frightened, for the bird was large, a great deal larger than herself,—she was only an inch high. ”

“ Oh, how she shivered with cold! All at once she came to the door of a field mouse who had a little den under the corn stubble. There lived the field mouse in warmth and comfort, with a storeroom full of corn and a splendid kitchen and dining room. Poor Thumbelina stood before the door just like a little beggar girl, and asked for a little piece of barleycorn, [89] for she had been without a morsel to eat for two days.
“You poor little creature,” said the field mouse, for she was a good, kind-hearted old mouse; “come into my warm room and dine with me.” ”

“ It is true that I have not the power to undo entirely what my elder has done. The Princess shall indeed pierce her hand with a spindle; but instead of dying of the wound she shall only fall into a deep sleep, which shall last a hundred years, at the end of which a King’s son shall come and wake her.”
The King resolved to do all in his power to avoid the misfortune foretold by the old fairy. He immediately issued an edict forbidding any one, on pain of death, to spin with a distaff and spindle, or even to have a spindle in his house. ”

“ What is the most beautiful [56] place on earth that you know about? Do tell us all about it! Have you been in the storeroom, where cheeses lie on the shelves, and hams hang from the ceiling? One can run about on tallow candles there. Ah! that is the place where one goes in thin and comes out fat.”
“I know nothing about that,” said the fir tree; “but I know of the wood, where the sun shines and the birds sing.” ”

“ The fairy set out immediately, and arrived at the castle about an hour later in a fiery chariot drawn by dragons.
The King handed her out of the chariot. She approved everything he had done; but, as she had great foresight, she thought that when the Princess awoke she would be much perplexed and troubled at finding herself all alone in this old palace. So this is what she did. She touched with her wand everything in the palace except the King and Queen,—governesses, maids of honor, ladies of the bedchamber, gentlemen, officers, stewards, cooks, scullions, guards, porters, pages, and footmen ”

“ In a simple and direct way right is rewarded and wrong is discountenanced; the thief among the six brothers has to be the palest star in the Pleiades. The grotesque and horrible have been introduced only where they are so exaggerated that no sane child would fail to appreciate their extravagance. Cruel stepmothers are a tradition of fairy lore, but tales of cruel brothers and sisters do not appear in these volumes. ”

“ Then, to the astonishment of every one, he drew forth a piece of linen four hundred ells long. Into it were woven all the kinds of birds [172] and beasts and fishes in the world; the sun, moon, and stars; every sort of plant and tree that grows; and pictures of all the Kings and Queens in the world, and all their children. When the needle was brought the linen went through the eye six times with ease. The King and the two elder brothers sat still and did not say a word, for no one could help seeing that this linen was so beautiful and rare that nothing in the world could be compared to it. ”

“ Grimm’s “The Three Feathers.” Our version is much abridged. The delicacy and charm of Madame D’Aulnoy’s style can be best appreciated in the descriptions of life in the enchanted palace and of the graceful little White Cat. The rude details of other stories, in which the older princes bring home farmer lasses who try to jump through a ring and break their arms and legs in the attempt, are here omitted. With characteristic refinement the story-teller allows no one to be discomfited; all live happily ever after, as the heroes and heroines of real fairy tales should. ”

“ It made little Thumbelina very sad to see it, for she did so love the birds; all through the summer they had sung and twittered for her so beautifully. But the mole pushed it aside with his crooked legs and said: “Now he can’t sing any more! How miserable it must be to be born a little bird! I am thankful that none of my children will ever be birds, for they can do nothing but cry ‘Tweet, tweet,’ and must always die of hunger in the winter.” [92]
“Yes, you speak like a sensible man!” exclaimed the field mouse. ”

“ So discontented was the tree that it took no pleasure in the sunshine, or the birds, or in the rosy clouds that floated over it morning and evening.
Sometimes in winter, when the snow lay white and sparkling on the ground, a hare [43] would come leaping along and jump right over the little tree’s head; then how mortified it felt!
Two winters passed; and when the third came, the tree had grown so tall that the hare was obliged to run round it.
“Ah, to grow and grow! to become tall and old! ”

“ We will take her out in the stream and put her on one of the water-lily leaves; it will [82] be like an island to her, she is so light and small Then she can’t run away from us while we are preparing the apartments under the marsh, in which you are to live when you are married.”
Far out in the stream grew a number of water lilies, with broad green leaves which looked as if they were floating on the top of the water. The leaf that was farthest away was also the largest, and to this the old toad swam with the walnut shell in which Thumbelina lay still asleep. ”

“ But the cockchafer did not trouble himself at all about that; he seated himself beside her on a large green leaf, gave her some honey from the flowers to eat, and told her she was very pretty, though not in the least like a cockchafer. [86]
Before long all the cockchafers who lived in the tree came to pay Thumbelina a visit. They stared at her, and then the young lady cockchafers turned up their feelers and said, “Why, she has only two legs! How very ugly!”
“She has no feelers,” said one.
“Her waist is quite slim. Pooh! she is like a human being,” said another. ”

“ Everywhere people talked of the beauty of the elder and of the wit of the younger. It is true that their defects increased considerably with their years. The younger grew visibly uglier, and the elder became more stupid every day; either she made no reply to what was asked her, or she said something very silly. She was, besides, so clumsy that she could not place four pieces of china on the mantelpiece without breaking one, nor drink a glass of water without spilling half of it on her clothes. ”

“ Stay in your warm bed; I will take care of you.”
She brought the swallow water in a flower leaf; and after he had drunk, he told her that he had torn one of his wings on a thorn bush and could not fly as fast as the others, who had flown far away to warm countries. At last he had fallen to the ground and could remember nothing more, nor how he came to be where she had found him.
All winter the swallow remained underground, and Thumbelina nursed and cared [95] for him tenderly. Neither the mole nor the field mouse knew anything about it, for they could not bear swallows. ”

“ O that I were now laid on the wagon, or standing in the warm room with all that brightness and splendor about me! Something better and more beautiful is sure to follow, or the trees would not be so decked out. Yes, something better, something still more splendid must follow—but what can it be? ”

“ It was hung with butterflies’ wings of every color; there were mirrors that reached from the floor to the ceiling; and his bed was draped in [162] gauze, fastened with a thousand knots of ribbon. The Prince went to bed in silence, for he did not know how to begin a conversation with the hands that waited on him.
In the morning he was awakened by noise and confusion outside, and the hands came quickly and dressed him in hunting costume. He looked out into the courtyard and saw more than five hundred cats making preparation for this holiday, for the White Cat was going hunting. ”

“ The old fairy fancied she was slighted, and muttered some threats between her teeth. One of the young fairies who sat beside her heard these threats, and judging that she might give the little Princess some unlucky gift, went, as soon as they rose from the table, and hid herself behind the hangings. In this way she could be the one to speak last, and might be able to repair, in so far as it was possible, any evil which the old fairy might intend to do. [3]
Meanwhile the fairies began to bestow their gifts upon the Princess. ”

“ A pretty little white butterfly fluttered round her for a long time and at last [85] alighted on the leaf. The maiden pleased him, and she was glad she did, for she was lonely. Taking off her girdle she tied one end of it round the butterfly, fastening the other end to the leaf, which was now gliding on much faster than before.
Presently a large cockchafer flew by. The moment he caught sight of Thumbelina he seized her round her slender waist with his claws and flew with her to a tree. ”

“ When he got downstairs there sat all five, weeping and lamenting in a heartrending way, each a little louder than the others.
“What misfortune can possibly have happened?” he asked.
“Alas! dear Hans,” said Alice, “if we marry and have a child, and he grows up, and we happen to send him into the cellar here to draw beer, then that pickax which has been hanging up there might kill him [111] if it were to fall down upon his head; so have we not reason to weep?”
“Well,” said Hans, “more cleverness than that is not needed to keep house for me ”

“ And because she was so beautiful the huntsman took pity on her and said, “Well, run away then, poor child.” For he thought to himself, “The wild beasts will soon devour her.” But yet it seemed as if a stone had been rolled from his heart because he did not have to kill her. ”