Tom thumb

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Charles Perrault

Once upon a time there was a lumberjack and a lumberjack who had seven
children, all of them boys. The oldest was ten years old and the youngest,
only seven. It may be surprising that the lumberjack has had so many
children in such a short time; but it is that his wife had the task because he
did them two by two. They were very poor and their seven children were a
heavy burden as none could yet make a living. They also suffered because the
child was very delicate and did not speak any word, interpreting as stupidity
what was a feature of the goodness of his soul. He was very small and when
he came into the world he was no fatter than the thumb, so they called him
Thumb. This poor boy was in the house the one who paid for the broken
dishes and they always blamed him for everything. However, he was the
finest and sharpest of his brothers and, if he spoke little, he listened a lot
instead.
A very difficult year ensued, and the famine was so great that this poor
couple decided to get rid of their children. One night, while the children were
lying down, the woodcutter, sitting with his wife by the fire, said to her, "You
see that we can no longer feed our children; I no longer resign myself to
watching them starve before my eyes, and I am determined to let them get
lost tomorrow in the forest, which will be quite easy because as long as they
are entertained doing splinter ties, we will only have to flee without being
seen. "Oh! Would you be able to let your children lose yourself? As much as
her husband made her see his great poverty, she could not allow it; he was
poor, but it was his mother. However, thinking of the pain it would be for her
to see them starve, she consisted and went to bed crying. Pulgarcito heard
everything they said because, having heard from his bed that they were
talking about serious matters, he had gotten up very slowly and slid under his
father's stool to hear them without being seen. He went back to bed and
didn't sleep anymore, thinking about what he had to do. He got up at dawn
and went to the edge of a stream where he filled his pockets with white
pebbles, and then returned home. They all departed, and Thumb said
nothing to his brothers of what he knew. They went to a very dense forest
where, ten steps away, they did not see each other.
The woodcutter began to cut firewood and his children to collect chips to
make ties. The father and mother, seeing them worried about their work,
walked away from them without being noticed and then ran down a small
deviated path. When the children were alone, they began to roar and cry in
the seas. Thumb let them scream, knowing full well where they would return
home; for as he walked he had dropped along the way the white pebbles that
he carried in his pockets. Then he said to them, "Do not be afraid, brethren;
my father and mother left us here, but I will take them back home, they just
have to follow me. They followed him and he led them to his abode along the
same path they had made into the woods. At first they didn't dare to enter,
but they all stood by the door to listen to what their father and mother were
talking about. The moment the woodcutter and woodcutter arrived at their
house, the village lord sent them ten shields that he had been owing them
for a long time and whose reimbursement they no longer expected. This
brought them back to life as the unhappy were starving. The woodcutter sent
his wife to the butcher's shop on the spot. Since they hadn't eaten in a while,
he bought three times more meat than was needed for the two-person
dinner. When they were satiated, the woodcutter said, "Oh! What will
become of our poor children? Good food would have with what we have left.
But also, Guillermo, it was you who wanted to lose them. Well I said that we
would regret it. What will they be doing in that forest? Oh my God, maybe
the wolves have already eaten them! You are inhuman enough of having lost
your children like this.
The woodcutter became impatient at last, for she repeated more than
twenty times that they would repent and that she had said it well. He
threatened to hit her if she didn't shut up. It was not that the woodcutter
was not even more afflicted than his wife, but that she crushed his head, and
he felt the same as many like him who like women who say well, but who
consider inopportune those who always said it well. The woodcutter was
broken into tears.
"Oh! Where are my children, my poor children now? "Once he said it so
loudly that the children, crowded at the door, heard it and began to shout
together: "Here we are, here we are!" She hurriedly opened the door and
said hugging them, "How glad I am to see you again, my dear children!" They
are very tired and hungry; and you, Pierrot, look how muddy you are, come
to clean yourself. This Pierrot was her eldest son whom she loved more than
everyone else, because he was a little red-haired, and she was a little
colorful. They sat at the table and ate with an appetite that delighted the
father and mother; they told the scare they had had in the forest and they all
talked almost at the same time. These good people were happy to see their
children with them again, and this joy lasted as long as the ten shields lasted.
When all the money was spent, they relapsed into their previous concern and
again decided to lose them; but in order not to fail, they would take them
much further than the first time.
They could not talk about this so secretly as not to be heard by Pulgarcito,
who decided to manage as on the previous occasion; but, although he got up
at dawn to go pick up the pebbles, he could not do it because he found the
door closed with double key. I didn't know what to do; when the woodcutter,
she gave each one a piece of bread for breakfast; he thought then that he
could use his bread instead of the pebbles, dropping it to crumbs along the
path they would travel; So I keep it in my pocket. The father and mother took
them to the darkest and thickest place in the forest and took a secluded path
and left the children.
Thumb did not grieve much because he believed that he could easily find his
way through his bread that he had spread everywhere he had passed; but he
was very surprised when he could not find a single crumb; the birds had
come and eaten everything. There, then, they were most afflicted, because
the more they walked, the more they went astray and sank in the forest.
Night came, and a strong wind began to blow that gave them a terrible fright.
Everywhere they thought they heard the howls of wolves that approached
them to eat them. They hardly dared to speak or turn around. A thick rain
began to fall that penetrated them to the bone; they slipped at every turn
and fell into the mud from where they stood covered in mud, not knowing
what to do with their hands. Pulgarcito climbed to the top of a tree to see if
he discovered anything; turning his head from side to side, he spotted a little
light like a lamp, which was far beyond the forest. He came down from the
tree; and when he came to the ground, he saw nothing else; this made him
desperate. However, after walking for a while with his brothers to where he
had seen the light, he saw it again as he left the forest. They arrived at the
house where the lamp was not without going through many scares, because
from time to time they lost sight of it, which happened every time they
crossed a bass. They knocked on the door and a good woman opened them.
He asked them what they wanted; Pulgarcito told him that they were poor
children who had gone astray in the forest and asked for shelter for charity.
The woman, seeing them all so cute, began to cry and said, "Oh! my poor
children, where have they come to fall? Do you know that this is the house of
an ogre who eats children? "Oh, ma'am! "Thumb, who was shaking whole
like his brothers, replied, "what can we do? the forest wolves will safely eat
us tonight if you don't want to shelter us in your house. That being the case,
we prefer that it be the Lord who eats us; perhaps he will take pity on us, if
you beg him. The ogre's wife, who thought she could hide them from her
husband until the next morning, let them in and took them to warm up on
the edge of a good fire, for there was an entire lamb roasting on the stick for
the ogre's dinner. As they began to warm up, they heard three or four loud
knocks on the door: it was the returning ogre. On the spot the woman made
the children hide under the bed and went to open the door. The ogre first
asked if dinner was ready, if they had taken out wine, and immediately sat
down at the table. The lamb was still bleeding, but that's why he found it
better. He sniffed right and left, saying it smelled like fresh meat.
"It has to be," said his wife, "that calf that I just prepared what you feel. "I
smell fresh meat," I tell you again, "replied the ogre looking sideways at his
wife, here is something I do not understand. Saying these words, he got up
from the table and went straight to bed.
"Ah," he said, "so you want to deceive me, damn woman!" I don't know why
I don't eat you too! Lucky for you who are an old beast. This hunt comes to
me very much in time to celebrate three ogre friends who must come these
days. He took the children out from under the bed, one after another. The
poor knelt down asking for mercy; but they were before the cruelest of ogres
who, far from feeling pity, devoured them with his eyes and told his wife that
they would become tasty bites when she made them a good sauce. He went
to pick up a huge knife and as he approached the unhappy children, he
sharpened it on a stone he carried in his left hand. He had already taken one
of them when his wife said, "What do you want to do at this hour?" Won't
you have time tomorrow morning? "Shut up," replied the ogre, "so they will
be more tender.
"But you still have so much flesh," replied the woman. there is a calf, two
lambs and half of a pig, "You are right," said the ogre; give them a good
dinner so they don't lose weight, and take them to bed. The good woman
was very happy, and brought them a good meal, but they could not swallow,
of pure fright. As for the ogre, he kept drinking, delighted to have such a
good thing to celebrate his friends. He drank about twelve more drinks than
usual, which went a little to his head, forcing him to go to bed. The ogre had
seven very young daughters still. These little ogressas all had a nice color
because they fed on fresh meat, like their father; but they had very round
gray eyes, hooked nose and large mouth with sharp teeth far apart from each
other. They were not yet completely evil, but they promised enough, because
they already bit the children to suck their blood. They had been put to bed
early, and there were seven of them on a large bed, each with a gold crown
on their heads. In the same room was another bed of the same size; there
the ogre's wife put the seven boys to sleep, after which she went to bed next
to her husband. Thumb; who had observed that the daughters of the ogre
wore gold crowns on their heads and fearing that the ogre would regret not
having slaughtered them that same night, he got up in the middle of the
night and taking the hats of his brothers and his own, he went slowly to place
them on the heads of the girls, after having taken away their golden crowns,
which he put on the heads of his brothers and on his own so that the ogre
would take them for his daughters, and his daughters for the boys he wanted
to slit his throat. The thing turned out just as I had thought; for the ogre,
having woken up at midnight, regretted having left for the next day what he
could do the day before.
He then abruptly came out of bed, and picked up his huge knife: "Let's see,"
he said, "how these little boys are; let's not leave it for another time. He then
went up to his daughters' room and approached the bed where the boys
were; they all slept except Thumb who was very afraid when he felt the hand
of the ogre that groped his head, as he had done with his brothers. The ogre,
who felt the golden crowns: "Truly," he said, "good job I would have done! I
see that last night I drank too much. He then went to the girls' bed where,
touching the boys' hats: "Ah, he exclaimed, here are our mozuelos, let us
work with courage. Saying these words, he slit the throats of his seven
daughters without trepidating. Very satisfied after this expedition, he went
back to bed next to his wife. As soon as Pulgarcito heard the ogre's snoring,
he woke up his brothers and told them to get dressed quickly and follow him.
They went down very slowly to the garden and jumped over the wall. They
ran all night, shivering always and not knowing where they were going. The
ogre, waking up, said to his wife:
"Go upstairs to prepare those little boys of yesterday. Very surprised was the
ogresa before the kindness of her husband without suspecting how he
understood that he prepared them; and believing that he ordered him to
dress them, he went up and what would not be his amazement to see his
seven daughters beheaded and swimming in blood. She started by fainting
(which is the first thing that almost all women in similar circumstances go
through). The ogre, fearing that the woman would take too long to perform
the task he had entrusted to her, went upstairs to help her. His amazement
was no less than that of his wife when he saw this horrible spectacle. "Oh!
What did I do? He exclaimed. I will be paid by these wretches, and on the
spot! He poured a bowl of water into his wife's nose and brought her to her
senses: "Give me my seven-league boots soon," he said, "to go and grab
them." He campaigned, and having traveled far from one side to the other,
he finally took the road where the poor boys who were already only a
hundred steps from their parents' house were going. They saw the ogre go
from hill to hill, and cross rivers as easily as if they were streams. Pulgarcito,
who discovered a hollow rock near where they were, brought his brothers in
and got in too, without losing sight of what the ogre was doing.
This, who was exhausted from so much walking uselessly (because the boots
of seven leagues are very tired), wanted to rest and by chance went to sit on
the rock where the boys had hidden. As he could not help but fatigue, he fell
asleep after resting for a while, and began to snore in such a frightening way
that the children were frightened just as when he held the huge knife to cut
their necks. Thumb felt less afraid, and told his brothers to hurriedly flee to
the house while the ogre slept soundly and not to worry about him. They
obeyed him and rushed home. Thumb, approaching the ogre, gently pulled
out his boots and put them on quickly. The boots were quite wide and large;
but since they were magical, they had the gift of adapting to the size of the
wearer, so that they fit their feet and legs as if they had been made to
measure. He went straight to the ogre's house where he found his wife crying
with his beheaded daughters. "Her husband," Pulgarcito told her, "is in grave
danger; he has been captured by a gang of thieves who have sworn to kill
him if he does not give them all his gold and money. The moment they had
him with his dagger around his neck, he spotted me and asked me to come
and warn him of the state he is in, and to tell him to give me everything he
has available in the house without keeping anything, because otherwise he
will be killed mercilessly.
As the matter is pressing, he wanted me to put on his seven-league boots to
fulfill his order, also so that you do not believe that I am lying. The good
woman, very frightened, gave him on the spot everything he had: for this
ogre did not cease to be a good husband, even when he ate the children.
Thumb, then, loaded with all the riches of the ogre, returned to his father's
house where he was received with the greatest joy. There are many people
who do not agree with this last circumstance, and maintain that Pulgarcito
never committed that robbery; who, by the way, had no qualms about taking
away the ogre's seven-league boots because he used them only to chase
children. These people claim to know it from a good source, even saying that
because they have been eating and drinking at the woodcutter's house.
They say that when Pulgarcito put on the ogre's boots, he left for the court,
where he knew they were worried about an army that was two hundred
leagues away, and about the success of a battle that had been fought. They
say that he went to see the king and told him that, if he wished, he would
bring him news from the army that same afternoon. The king promised him a
large amount of money if he fulfilled this task. Pulgarcito brought the news
that same afternoon, and having made himself known for this first
commission, he won everything he wanted; for the king paid him handsomely
to pass on his orders to the army; in addition, a number of ladies gave him
whatever he asked for to bring them news of his lovers, which provided him
with his greatest profits. There were some women who commissioned letters
for their husbands, but they paid him so badly and represented so little, that
he did not even deign to take into account what he earned on that side. After
doing the post office for some time, and having amassed great goods, he
returned to his father, where the joy of seeing him again is impossible to
describe. He established his family with the greatest comforts. He bought
newly created positions for his father and brothers and thus placed them all,
at the same time skillfully forming his own court.

End