Categories
- Antiques & Collectibles 13
- Architecture 36
- Art 47
- Bibles 22
- Biography & Autobiography 811
- Body, Mind & Spirit 110
- Business & Economics 26
- Computers 4
- Cooking 94
- Crafts & Hobbies 3
- Drama 346
- Education 45
- Family & Relationships 50
- Fiction 11812
- Games 19
- Gardening 17
- Health & Fitness 34
- History 1377
- House & Home 1
- Humor 147
- Juvenile Fiction 1873
- Juvenile Nonfiction 202
- Language Arts & Disciplines 88
- Law 16
- Literary Collections 686
- Literary Criticism 179
- Mathematics 13
- Medical 41
- Music 39
- Nature 179
- Non-Classifiable 1768
- Performing Arts 7
- Periodicals 1453
- Philosophy 62
- Photography 2
- Poetry 896
- Political Science 203
- Psychology 42
- Reference 154
- Religion 488
- Science 126
- Self-Help 61
- Social Science 80
- Sports & Recreation 34
- Study Aids 3
- Technology & Engineering 59
- Transportation 23
- Travel 463
- True Crime 29
An Entertaining History of Tom Thumb William Raine's Edition
by: Unknown
Publisher:
DigiLibraries.com
ISBN:
N/A
Language:
English
Published:
4 months ago
Downloads:
6
*You are licensed to use downloaded books strictly for personal use. Duplication of the material is prohibited unless you have received explicit permission from the author or publisher. You may not plagiarize, redistribute, translate, host on other websites, or sell the downloaded content.
Description:
Excerpt
In great King Arthur’s reign, Tom’s history first begun;A farmer’s wife had sigh’d in vain to have a darling son!
A fairy listen’d to her call, and granted her the same;
But being very small, Tom Thumb she did him name.
To please him every means she’d take,
And a pudding large did for him make;
But in trying to obtain a sip,
Into the batter did he slip!
The batter in the pot went plump;
Tom made the pudding skip and jump!
His mother, with affright, did this espy,
And gave it to a tinker passing by;
Tom scream’d so loud, that, in dismay,
He threw it down, and ran away.
Tom to the fields with his mother went,
To milk the cow was her intent;
The wind blew high as they did walk,
So she tied him to a thistle stalk;
The cow the thistle view’d and cropp’d,
In her mouth, with Tom, it soon was popp’d!
Her teeth put Tom in such a fright,
That he “mother” bawl’d with all his might!
The cow, on hearing such a rout,
Open’d her jaws, and Tom step’d out.
Our hero great exploits went through;
Away with him, once, a raven flew!
A giant on him made a dish;
He once was swallow’d by a fish!
Poor Tom fell sick; when, in a trice,
There came a car with flying mice:
The queen, inside the car so grand,
Convey’d poor Tom to a fairy land.
His health restored, she, by her art,
In a gale, sent Tom to Arthur’s court.
King Arthur loved good furmenty,—
The cook made a bowl for his majesty;
In conveying it to the palace, hot,
Our hero into the bowl did drop!
The cook was fill’d with great surprise,
For the liquor burnt his nose and eyes.
The bowl being broke, the angry cook
Before the king our hero took:
When the king beheld Tom’s awful plight,
He pardon gave, and dubb’d him knight.
Tom, in the palace, lived content;
With the king to hunt, on a mouse he went:
One day, the mouse a cat espied,
And soon to catch him pussey tried;
Tom drew his sword, and spoilt her treat,
By slaying pussey at his feet.
Thus, Tom lived happy—without strife,
Till the queen, in anger, sought his life.
In the palace he could no longer stay;
So on a butterfly he rode away.
The butterfly flew from flower to flower;
The queen tried to catch it for many an hour;
Till at last, oh, direful tale to tell,
Into a spider’s web our hero fell!
The spider ran to seize his prey;
Tom, with his sword, fought valiantly;
Till, alas! the spider’s poisonous breath
Was the cause of our gallant hero’s death.
In a bower of roses his tomb they rear’d,
And on it this epitaph appear’d:—
Of life deprived, by a spider’s bite,
Here lies Tom Thumb, a valiant knight:
His feasts in Arthur’s court, and sight,
Fill’d all with wonder and delight.
He was bold at tilt and tournament;
On a mouse, with the king, the hunt he went:
His deeds were great, tho’ his size was small,
And his death was mourned by one and all.
Then, reader, pause; one tear now shed,
And cry, “Alas! Tom Thumb is dead.”