TOM_ yet their love for him was very great. They used
THUMB to hold him on their palms till he was old enough
to toddle, and then they placed him on the table.
They were afraid to let him run on the floor lest
he should be trodden on.
He was mischievous for all his small size, and as
he grew to be a boy of twelve he was always at
some prank or other.
When Tom was old enough to play with other
boys, he delighted to do so, but then he was ever
at some mad prank or other.
At that time boys were wont to play with cherry-
stones instead of marbles, and when Tom had lost
all his own cherrystones, he used to creep into the
bags of his playfellows, fill his pockets, and crawl
out again without their noticing what he was
about, and join in the game once more.
One day, however, as he was issuing from a bag of
cherrystones, where he had been stealing as usual,
Ee boy whose bag he had entered chanced to see
im.
‘Ho-ho!’ exclaimed the lad; ‘so—Tom Thumb,
then you are at your usual pranks. Now I have
caught you stealing my cherrystones. I have long
suspected you. AsIhave got youIshall punish you.’
Then he drew the string of the bag tight round
Tom’s neck and shook the bag well, so that the
cherrystones rattled against and bruised Tom’s
little body and thighs and legs. He screamed for
pain, and begged to be released, and promised
that he never would steal again.
One day that he had been at his pranks he was
shut up in apin box. This hurt him greatly, and
next day he resolved to revenge himself. He took
a number of glasses and hung them on a sunbeam.
The other boys tried to do the same, but failed
and broke all the glasses, and were severely
whipped for having done this.
One day while his mother was making a batter-
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