As Thumbelina pleased her, she said, "As far as I am concerned you may spend the winter with me; but you must keep my room clean and tidy, and tell me stories, for I like that very much." Poor little creature!" said the field mouse, for she was a kind-hearted old thing at the bottom. "Come into my warm room and have some dinner with me." Yes, you may well say that, as a clever man,” observed the field-mouse. “Of what use is all this ‘tweet-weet’ to a bird when the winter comes? He must starve and freeze. But they say that’s very grand!” What a beautiful flower!" Exclaimed the woman, and she kissed the red and yellow petals; but as she kissed them the flower burst open. It was a real tulip, such as one can see any day, but in the middle of the blossom, on the green velvety petals, sat a little girl; quite tiny, trim, and pretty. She was scarcely half a thumb in height and so they called her Thumbelina. An elegant polished walnut-shell served Thumbelina as a cradle, the blue petals of a violet were her mattress, and a rose-leaf her cover-lid. There she lay at night, but in the daytime she used to play about on the table; here the woman had put a bowl surrounded by a ring of flowers, with their stalks in water, in the middle of which floated a great tulip petal. On this Thumbelina sat and sailed from one side of the bowl to the other, rowing herself with two white horse-hairs for oars. It was such a pretty sight! She could sing too, with a voice more soft and sweet than had ever been heard before. When autumn arrived, Thumbelina sat at the edge of the hole and gazed at her beloved sun lowering behind the cornfield. She saw leaves upon the ground and her heart filled with a sudden sadness.

She was pleased with Thumbelina, so she said, “You are quite welcome to stay with me all the winter, if you like; but you must keep my rooms clean and neat, and tell me stories, for I shall like to hear them very much.” And Thumbelina did all that the field mouse asked her, and found herself very comfortable. The next night she stole out to him again, and now he was alive, but so weak that he could only open his eyes for a moment and look at Thumbelina, who stood before him with a bit of decayed wood in her hand, for she had no other light. But he was cautious and said nothing to Thumbelina. He told them he had dug a passage that linked their houses together. ‘You may go along it whenever you like,’ he said. ‘Follow me, and I will show you the way.’ He took a piece of rotten wood which glowed in the dark, and led them along the tunnel.It is a beautiful flower,” said the woman, and she kissed the red and golden-colored petals; and as she did so the flower opened, and she could see that it was a real tulip. But within the flower, upon the green velvet stamens, sat a very delicate and graceful little maiden. She was scarcely half as long as a thumb, and they gave her the name of Little Thumb, or Thumbelina, because she was so small. Andersen, Hans Christian (1983) [1974]. The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories. Translated by Haugaard, Erik Christian. New York, NY: Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-18951-6. Please, may I have a piece of barleycorn to eat,’ Thumbelina begged the field-mouse. ‘I have had nothing to eat for two days.’‘You poor thing,’ said the field-mouse, who had a kind heart. ‘Come inside! Come inside!’ The field-mouse so enjoyed Thumbelina’s company that she told her she could stay. ‘But you must clean my house and tell me stories,’ she said.’ I like to listen to stories.’

Thumbelina on its journey meets with a terrible frog that wanted her to marry her son, and then the good-intentioned mouse, which wanted to marry her for a dull, old mole. However, Thumbelina is saved from both marriages and eventually met the Little Prince, who was its size and in which she immediately fell in love. They married and lived happily in flowers, fun, and love. The leaf furthest away was the largest, and to this the old toad swam with Thumbelina in her walnut-shell.

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Oh," said she, "it is cold out of doors now; it snows and freezes. Stay in your warm bed; I will take care of you." Just outside the wood she came to a great cornfield, but the corn was gone long ago, only the naked dry stubble stood up out of the frozen ground. This was just like a great forest for her to struggle through. Oh, how she shivered with cold! Then she came to the door of a field-mouse. This was a little hole under the stubble. There the field-mouse lived, warm and comfortable, and had a whole roomful of corn, and a fine kitchen and larder. Poor Thumbelina stood at the door just like a poor beggar girl, and begged for a little bit of barley-corn, for she had not had the smallest morsel to eat for two days.