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Ebook in formato Kindle (mobi) - Kindle File Ebook (mobi)
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Versione ebook di Readme.it powered by Softwarehouse.itTHE ADVENTURES OF TOM THUMBOnce upon a time . . . there lived a giant who had quarrelled with a very greedy wizard over sharing a treasure. After the quarrelthe giant said menacingly to the wizard:
"I could crush you under my thumb if I wanted to! Nowget out of my sight!" The wizard hurried awaybut from a safe distancehe hurled his terrible revenge.
"Abracadabra! Here I cast this spell! May the sonyour wife will shortly give younever grow any taller than my own thumb!"
After Tom Thumb was bornhis parents were at their wits' end. They could never find himfor 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 creaturesto the company of parents so different from himself. He rode piggyback on the snail and danced with the ladybirds. Tiny as he washe had great fun in the world of little things.
But one unlucky dayhe 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 laterhe took the bait cast by one of the King's fishermenand before longfound himself under the cook's knife in the royal kitchens. And great was everyone's surprise whenout of the fish's stomachstepped Tom Thumbquite alive and little the worse for his adventure.
"What am I to do with this tiny lad?" said the cook to himself. Then he had a brainwave. "He can be a royal pageboy! He's so tinyI can pop him into the cake I'm making. When he marches across the bridgesounding the trumpet everyone will gasp in wonder!" Never had such a marvel been seen at Court. The guests clapped excitedly at the cook's skill and the King himself clapped loudest of all. The King rewarded the clever cook with a bag of gold. Tom Thumb was even luckier. The cook made him a pageboyand a pageboy he remainedenjoying all the honours of his post.
He had a white mouse for a mounta gold pin for a sword and he was allowed to eat the King's food. In exchangehe marched up and down the table at banquets. He picked his way amongst the plates and glasses amusing the guests with his trumpet.
What Tom Thumb didn't know was that he had made an enemy. The cat whichuntil Tom's arrivalhad been the King's petwas now forgotten. Andvowing to have its revenge on the newcomerit ambushed Tom in the garden. When Tom saw the cathe did not run awayas the creature had intended. He whipped out his gold pin and cried to his white mouse mount:
"Charge! Charge!" Jabbed by the tiny swordthe cat turned tail and fled. Since brute force was not the way to revengethe cat decided to use guile. Casually pretending to bump into the King as he walked down the staircasethe cat softly miaowed:
"Sire! Be on your guard! A plot is being hatched against your life!" And then he told a dreadful lie. "Tom Thumb is planning to lace your food with hemlock. I saw him picking the leaves in the garden the other day. heard him say these very words!"
Nowthe King had once been kept in bed with very bad tummy painsafter eating too many chernes and he feared the thought of being poisonedso he sent for Tom Thumb. The cat provided proof of his words by pulling a hemlock leaf from under the white mouse's saddle clothwhere he had hidden it himself.
Tom Thumb was so amazedhe was at a loss for words to deny what the cat had said. The Kingwithiut further adohad him thrown into prison. And since he was so tinythey locked him up in a pendulum clock. The hours passed and the days too. Tom's only pastime was swinging back and forthclinging to the pendulumutil the night when he attracted the attention of a big night mothfluttering round the room.
"Let me out!" cried Tom Thumbtapping on the glass. As it so happensthe moth had only just been set free after being a prisoner in a large boxin which she had taken a nap. So she took pity on Tom Thumb and released him.
'll take you to the Butterfly Kingdomwhere everyone's tiny like burself. They'll take care of you there!" And that is what happened. To this dayif you visit the Butterfly Kingdomyou can ask to see the Butterfly monument that Tom Thumb built after this amazing adventrure.
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