As they were riding by a farmhouse one day, a cat jumped from behind the door, seized the mouse and little Tom, ran off with them both, and was just going to devour the mouse when Tom boldly drew his sword and attacked the cat with great spirit.  The King and his nobles, seeing Tom in danger, went to his assistance, and one of the lords bravely saved him just in time, but poor Tom was sadly scratched by the claws of the cat.

[Illustration:  Lice.]

The Queen of the Fairies came and took him again to Fairyland, where she kept him some years; after which, dressing him in bright green, she sent him flying once more through the air to the earth.  King Thunstone now reigned in the place of King Arthur.  The people flocked far and near to look at Tom Thumb, and the King, before whom he was carried, asked him who he was and where he lived.  Tom answered: 

  “My name is Tom Thumb,
  From the fairies I come;
  When King Arthur shone,
  This court was my home. 
  In me he delighted,
  By him I was knighted. 
  Did you ever hear of
  Sir Thomas Thumb?”

The King was so charmed with this address that he ordered a little chair to be made, and also a palace of gold a span high, with a door an inch wide, for little Tom to live in.  He also gave him a coach, drawn by six small mice.  This made the Queen angry, because she had not a new coach too; therefore, resolving to ruin Tom, she complained to the King that he had behaved very insolently to her.  The King sent for him in a rage.  Tom, to escape his fury, crept into a large, empty snail-shell, and there lay for some time, when, peeping out of the shell, he saw a fine butterfly on the ground.  He ventured forth and got astride the butterfly, which took wing, and mounted into the air with little Tom on his back.  Away he flew straight to the King’s court.

[Illustration:  The Wood-cutter’s daughter.]

The King, Queen, and nobles all strove to catch the butterfly.  At length poor Tom slipped from his seat, and fell into a sweet dish called white-pot, where he was found, almost drowned.  The Queen vowed he should be punished, and he was secured once more in a mouse-trap, when the cat, seeing something stir, and supposing it to be a mouse, patted the trap about till she broke it and set Tom at liberty.

[Illustration]

Soon afterwards a spider, taking poor Tom for a big fly, made a spring at him.  Tom drew his sword and fought valiantly, but the spider’s poisonous breath overcame him.

King Thunstone and his whole court went into mourning for little Tom Thumb.  They buried him under a rose-bush, and raised a nice, white marble monument over his grave.

[Illustration]

THE LION AND THE FOX

There was once a fox who had never seen a lion; and so, when he saw a lion for the first time, this fox was so scared that he did not know what to do.