Merlin was so much amused with the idea of a boy no bigger than a man's thumb, that he decided to grant the poor woman's wish.

The following year, the ploughman's wife had a son, who, wonderful to relate, was not a bit bigger than his father's thumb.

Even the Queen of the fairies was bursting with curiosity to see him.

She came in at the window while the mother was sitting up in the bed admiring him.

The Queen kissed the child, gave him the name of Tom Thumb, and 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 trousers 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."

Tom never grew any larger than his father's thumb, which was only of ordinary size; but as he got older he became very cunning and full of tricks.