The Adventures of Thumbelina: Courage, Kindness, and Wonder скачать в хорошем качестве

The Adventures of Thumbelina: Courage, Kindness, and Wonder

Thumbelina: A Tale of Courage and Wonder** Once, there was a woman who longed for a child of her own. Her heart ached with the desire to hold a little one in her arms. Desperate, she went to a witch and pleaded, “Dear witch, I would give anything to have a child. Can you help me?” The witch smiled slyly and handed her a single barleycorn. “Plant this in a pot, and wait. You’ll see.” Overjoyed, the woman hurried home and planted the grain. Almost instantly, a beautiful flower sprouted. As she bent to kiss its petals, they burst open, revealing a tiny girl no bigger than a thumb. “How delicate and lovely!” the woman exclaimed. “I shall call you Thumbelina.” Thumbelina was a happy child. At night, she slept in a polished walnut shell under a soft rose petal. By day, she rowed herself across a bowl of water, singing the sweetest songs anyone had ever heard. But one night, as Thumbelina slept, a toad hopped through the window. “What a perfect wife for my son!” the toad croaked, snatching the walnut shell and carrying it to her muddy home by the stream. When Thumbelina awoke, she found herself stranded on a water lily in the middle of the stream. “How will I ever escape?” she cried. The fish below heard her and took pity. “We cannot let her marry that ugly toad,” they said. They nibbled the lily’s stem until it broke free, carrying Thumbelina downstream. As she floated, a beetle swooped down and snatched her away. “You’re so pretty!” it said. But the other beetles disagreed. “She’s strange—only two legs and no feelers!” they scoffed. The beetle, embarrassed, left Thumbelina alone in the forest. All summer, Thumbelina lived in the wild. She wove a bed from grass and hung it under a dock leaf. She ate honey from flowers and drank morning dew. But when winter came, she shivered in the cold. Wandering into a cornfield, she found a kind field mouse who offered her shelter. “You may stay,” the mouse said, “but you must clean and tell me stories.” One day, the mouse introduced Thumbelina to her neighbor, a wealthy mole. “He would make a fine husband,” the mouse said. But Thumbelina disliked the mole, who cared only for darkness and wealth. While exploring the mole’s tunnel, Thumbelina found a swallow lying motionless. “Poor bird,” she whispered, covering it with a blanket of hay. To her surprise, the swallow was alive! She nursed it back to health, and when spring came, it flew away, promising to return. As the wedding to the mole approached, Thumbelina stood in the doorway, longing for the sun. Suddenly, the swallow returned! “Come with me,” it said. “I’ll take you to a land of eternal sunshine.” Thumbelina climbed onto the swallow’s back, and they soared over mountains and seas until they reached a warm, flower-filled land. There, the swallow set her on a flower, where she met a tiny prince with shining wings. “You are beautiful,” the prince said. “Will you marry me and be queen of the flowers?” Thumbelina agreed, and the flower people gave her wings of her own. She was renamed Maia, and she lived happily among the flowers, flying from bloom to bloom. As for the swallow, it returned to a storyteller’s window and shared Thumbelina’s tale. And that is how we came to know her story. *The End.*