nce upon a time . . . there lived a giant who had quarrelled with a very 
greedy wizard over sharing a treasure. After the quarrel, the giant said 
menacingly to the wizard:
   "I could crush you under my thumb if I wanted to! Now, get out of my 
sight!" The wizard hurried away, but from a safe distance, he hurled his 
terrible revenge.
   "Abracadabra! Here I cast this spell! May the son, your wife will shortly 
give you, never grow any taller than my own thumb!"
   After Tom Thumb was born, his parents were at their wits' end. They could 
never find him, for they could barely see him. They had to speak in whispers 
for fear of deafening the little boy. Tom Thumb preferred playing with the 
little garden creatures, to the company of parents so different from himself. 
He rode piggyback on the snail and danced with the ladybirds. Tiny as he was, 
he had great fun in the world of little things.
   But one unlucky day, he went to visit a froggy friend. No sooner had he 
scrambled onto a leaf than a large pike swallowed him up. But the pike too was
fated to come to a very bad end. A little later, he took the bait cast by one 
of the King's fishermen, and before long, found himself under the cook's knife
in the royal kitchens. And great was everyone's surprise when, out of the 
fish's stomach, stepped Tom Thumb, quite alive and little the worse for his 
adventure.