Tom Thumb!

Illustration: Tom Thumb.  Once Upon A Time.  Edited by Katharine Lee Bates.  Illustrations by Margaret Evans Price.  Rand McNally & Company: Chicago & New York. 1921.

. . . Tom Thumb’s mother took him with her when she went to milk the cow.  It was a very windy evening and she tied the little fellow with a needleful of thread to a thistle, that he might not be blown away.  Tom had a fine time, swinging and singing and talking with the bees and butterflies.  But by the by a big red cow came along and, taking a fancy to his oak-leaf hat, picked him and the thistle up at one mouthful.  When the cow began to chew the thistle, Tom was dreadfully frightened at her great teeth, and called out:  “Mother! Mother!”

“Where are you, my dear boy?” cried his mother in alarm.

“Here, mother, here in the red cow’s mouth.”

Once Upon A Time.

Edited by Katharine Lee Bates.

Illustrations by Margaret Evans Price.

Rand McNally & Company: Chicago & New York. 1921.