Once on a time he was traveling across the country dressed as a poor beggar. In the evening he stopped at a farmhouse and asked if he might stay there all night; for he had walked far and was tired, and there were no inns in England at that time.

The farmer gave him a hearty welcome and led him into the house; and the farmer's wife brought him some milk in a wooden bowl and some brown bread on a platter.

Merlin was much pleased with their kindness, and he spent the night with them very happily. Everything about the house was neat and cozy, and there was no lack of anything that was needed; and yet the farmer and his wife were both downcast and sad.

In the morning he asked them what it was that made them seem so unhappy in the midst of such plenty. They told him that they were sad because they had no children.

"Ah me!" said the poor woman, with tears in her eyes, "I would be the happiest woman in the world if I had a son. Why, if the boy were no bigger than my husband's thumb, I would be satisfied."

Merlin laughed at the thought of a boy no bigger than a man's thumb; and when he had eaten a breakfast of bread and milk, he bade the kind people good-bye and went his way.

Some years after that, he stopped at the same farmhouse again. He found everybody very happy this time; for the farmer's wife had a son, and he was not a bit bigger than his father's thumb. And they told Merlin many strange things about the little fellow.

One day when the mother was looking at the tiny babe and thinking how pretty he was, the queen of the fairies came flitting in at the window and kissed him and gave him the name of Tom Thumb. Then seven other fairies came dancing in, and dressed him as she told them to do:—

Tom never grew any larger than his father's thumb; but as he got older he learned many funny tricks and was as cunning a little fellow as you ever saw. One day when his mother was making a batter pudding Tom climbed up on the edge of the bowl to see how it was done. When his mother began to stir it she gave the bowl such a jar that he slipped off and fell, head over ears, into the batter.

His mother's eyes were not very good, and she did not see him. She kept on stirring and stirring, while the poor little fellow floundered about in the batter of milk and eggs and was half drowned. When she had finished the stirring, the good woman put the pudding in a pot and set it over the fire to cook.

Tom's mouth was so full of the batter that he could not cry out; but when the pudding began to get hot he kicked and floundered about at a great rate. His mother had never seen a pudding act in that way before, and she was frightened.

"My! my!" she cried, "I do believe that the pudding is bewitched." And before it was half done she took the pot off the fire and set it outside the door, "I'll see how it looks when it gets cold," she said.

Just at that time a poor beggar came to the gate and asked for something to eat.

"You are welcome to this pudding, if you want it," said the woman.

The beggar lifted it from the pot and put it into his basket and went away. He had not gone far when Tom got the batter out of his mouth and began to cry. This so frightened the beggar that he dropped his basket and ran down the road as fast as he could go.

What a sorry-looking fellow Tom was when he crept out of the pudding! He climbed out of the basket and looked around. Then he walked home and told his mother all about it. Of course she was sorry to see him in such a plight, but she was glad that the fairies had not let him drown in the batter. She put him into a teacup and gave him a bath, and then laid him in bed.