89 Joseph Jacobs THE HISTORY OF TOM THUMB I N THE DAYS of the great Prince Arthur, there lived a mighty magician, called Merlin, the most learned and skilful en- chanter the world has ever seen. This famous magician, who could take any form he pleased, was travelling about as a poor beggar, and being very tired, he stopped at the cottage of a ploughman to rest himself, and asked for some food. The countryman bade him welcome, and his wife, who was a very good-hearted woman, soon brought him some milk in a wooden bowl, and some coarse brown bread on a platter. Merlin was much pleased with the kindness of the ploughman and his wife; but he could not help noticing that though everything was neat and comfortable in the cot- tage, they seemed both to be very unhappy. He therefore asked them why they were so melancholy, and learned that they were miserable because they had no children. The poor woman said, with tears in her eyes: “I should be the happiest creature in the world if I had a son; although he was no bigger than my husband’s thumb, I would be satis- fied.” Merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a man’s thumb, that he determined to grant the poor woman’s wish. Accordingly, in a short time after, the ploughman’s wife had a son, who, wonderful to relate! was not a bit bigger than his father’s thumb. The queen of the fairies, wishing to see the little fellow, came in at the window while the mother was sitting up in the bed admiring him. The queen kissed the child, and, giv- ing it the name of Tom Thumb, sent for some of the fairies, who dressed her little godson according to her orders: “An oak-leaf hat he had for his crown; His shirt of web by spiders spun; With jacket wove of thistle’s down; His trowsers were of feathers done. His stockings, of apple-rind, they tie With eyelash from his mother’s eye His shoes were made of mouse’s skin, Tann’d with the downy hair within.”