After hearing Thumbelina’s lovely voice one warm summer night, a large toad hopped up to a window. Hop! Hop! Hop!
Once Thumbelina had fallen asleep, the toad crept in through the window.
“Oh
my! This one will make the perfect wife for my son!” she exclaimed. The toad grabbed Thumbelina in the walnut shell and carried her off to the nearby river. Once near the river the toad said
to her son, “Gaze at the lovely bride I found for you!”
Croak! Croak! Crooooooak! was all her son could reply.
Proudly, the mother toad took the still sleeping Thumbelina to a patch of
lily pads and placed her on the smallest one. Then she went back to where her son was now lying in a large puddle of mud and the two of them began to construct a house of mud and reeds fit for
the new bride.
Thumbelina awoke at the sound of hops and croaks and immediately began to sob at the thought of her mother all alone without the company of being sung to sleep.
Once Thumbelina had fallen asleep, the toad crept in through the window.