The Field Mouse Hired Four Spiders

Grandma Lu said, "When Thumbelina went to visit her little cardinal he said, 'It is spring time now, a warmer season. The fruit trees are blossoming. The blossoms are little flowers that are beautiful and smell so good.  It is time for me to say goodbye, little girl'."
Thumbelina opened up a little hole in the tunnel so that the bird could fly away. The sun was shining and it was warm outside. The bird said, 'Are you sure you won't fly away with me? You could sit on my back and we could fly into the beautiful green forest'."

Grandma Lu asked the children, "What do you think Thumbelina will do? Will she fly away with the beautiful bird or will she stay and marry the mole even though she doesn't want to?"
Most of the children thought that she would fly away with the beautiful red bird because he was her friend. But the answer was a surprise.
Grandma Lu said, "Actually, Thumbelina told the bird that she couldn't fly away with him because she didn't want to upset the field mouse. She said that she had been so good to her. She had fed her and her house had kept her warm through the winter so she didn't feel that she could fly away."
 "The field mouse was all excited and said, 'The mole has asked to marry you. You are so lucky. You are a poor child; now you will be rich. We have to get busy and make your wedding clothes. They must be warm and beautiful. I will hire four spiders to spin your new beautiful clothes. The material will feel very soft and keep you warm as well as make you even more beautiful. It will be called both linen and woolen'."

"Tiny or Thumbelina as we call her was not happy. In fact she was very sad. The thought of never seeing the sun or the flowers or the beautiful blue sky was just too much. It was soon going to be time to marry the old mole. She looked outside and it was so beautiful."

"She thought that she heard a familiar voice. 'Tweet tweet'. It was her friend, the cardinal. He said, 'I am going to a warmer place. Will you go with  me? You can sit on my back. You can take that little ribbon you wear around your waist and tie it to me. We can go far away from the ugly mole and go where the sun shines and the flowers bloom. You saved my life, now it is time for me to save you from a life of darkness and gloom'."

"Guess what? Thumbelina said, 'Yes, I will go with you. She crawled up on the bird's back and away they went."

"Wel, well, well. I guess Thumbelina has changed her mind. She is off on an adventure isn't she?"

Thumbelina Loved Her Friend

The children all agreed with Marlee. No one should marry a mole, except maybe another mole. Grandma Lu said, "Well, let's see what happens next. I have a feeling that that field mouse wants Thumbelina to marry that old mole. If I remember right it seemed like the mouse said that if Tiny or otherwise known as Thumbelina didn't marry the mole she would not be a bit happy with her. She kept telling the tiny little girl that the mole had a huge house under the ground and she would be happy being his wife just because he was rich. Tiny was such an unhappy little girl and tried to reason with the field mouse, but the mouse said that she was ungrateful and that she would marry the mole."

"But he didn't like the sunshine or the pretty flowers did he? Do you like the sunshine, pretty flowers, and birds?"

Ryan said, "I hear the birds and see the pretty flowers when I go outside and ride my bike. That's part of the fun. My mama likes flowers too."

Other children said they loved to go out in the flowers. They smelled good and were pretty. They couldn't imagine anyone not liking flowers, but sometimes the sunshine is really bright. Everyone agreed that sometimes the sun was so bright they needed sunglasses or they would squint to keep the sun out of their eyes.

Grandma Lu continued with her story and said, "The mole had given Thumbelina and the field mouse permission to walk from the field mouse's house to his whenever she liked, but warned of a dead bird that lay in the passageway. He gave her a tiny piece of wood that made a little bit of light. One day Thumbelina did see that bird. It had evidently died of being too cold. It made Thumbelina so sad because she loved the birds and their beautiful songs. It looked like the cardinal and his friends that had sung beautiful songs to her this summer."

"Thumbelina went back to the field mouse's house and started to weave a blanket for the beautiful bird from tiny pieces of flower down that she had found. She wove the down until she had made a warm blanket for the bird. She carried it to the tunnel and managed to cover the poor bird even though she was only an inch tall.  She laid her head on it's chest and oh my goodness she jumped! She heard the cardinal's heart beat; 'thump thump'. It was not dead, but only very weak."

"The bird opened his eyes and said, 'Thank you pretty little girl. The blanket makes me nice and warm. I will be able to get stronger and fly again in the warm sunshine'."

"Thumbelina said, 'Oh you can't go now because it is cold outside and it will probably snow. It's okay. I will take care of you'." She did just that and the field mouse and the mole never knew a thing about it. She kept it a secret."
Grandma Lu said, "You know what? If I remember right that cardinal stayed underground and let Thumbelina give him water on a flower leaf and after awhile the cardinal said that he was ready to fly south where it was warmer."

" Do you think that made Thumbelina sad? Have you ever had a friend that moved away? Sometimes it makes us happy and sad at the same time, doesn't it? Happy that they get to make new friends and have new adventures, but sad because we will miss them, right?"

Thumbelina Is Cold!

Grandma Lu continued her story by saying, "It was wintertime now and Thumbelina was so very cold. The snowflakes began to fall on her. She was so tiny that when a snow flake fell on her it felt like a big shovel full of snow. Remember she was about the size of your thumb."

"She tried wrapping herself in a dry leaf, but it cracked and broke into tiny pieces so she started to walk to shelter hoping to find someplace where she could keep warm.

Close by where she had been living there was a great big house. There were sunflowers in the yard. She was so happy. But once again, the sunflowers were hard because they were cold also. She stood under the sunflower leaf deciding if she would be able to walk into the big house. It looked so far away."

"Thumbelina decided that she would try it. She got to the porch and noticed a small hole in the bottom of the house. She bent over and looked inside. It was nice and warm in there, so she walked right in and a field mouse met her at the door and said, "You look tired and hungry and very cold. Come into my kitchen where it is warmer. I will give you something to eat."

"Thumbelina was so happy because she hadn't had anything to eat for two days. Her tummy was growling. The field mouse liked the little girl and told her that she could stay with her all winter if she would like to. The mouse said that she had to clean her house and tell her stories to pay her back for her kindness. Thumbelina agreed and she was very warm and happy there."

"One day the field mouse said, 'We are going to have company soon. My neighbor is going to visit. He is very rich and has many rooms. He also wears a beautiful black fur coat. You would be very well off if you would marry him. He is blind and cannot see, so if you would tell him your nice stories I'm just sure he would like to make you his wife.'"

Grandma Lu said, "Well, Thumbelina was not a bit interested in getting married to a mole. Have any of you ever seen a mole?" No one had so she showed the children a picture of the field mouse and the mole. " A mole lives underground and digs holes in my yard, Grandma Lu chuckled. The story teller in the book is right. Moles are blind so they have no clue what sunlight looks like or beautiful flowers. There are many people that are blind too. We are all different aren't we?"

"Well, Thumbelina did sing to him and he loved her beautiful voice, but he didn't ask her to marry him yet, because he was a very careful mole. Dogs and cats don't like moles, so he had to be careful not to go out of his tunnels. He made many many tunnels under the ground, so the field mouse was right. He had a very big house."

Marlee said, "Well, who would want to marry a mole? Yuk! That's just silly, Grandma Lu."
Everybody laughed and agreed with Marlee.

Differences In Looks And Seasons

Grandma Lu said, "Thumbelina was so happy. She loved that beautiful butterfly. She took off her tiny belt and tied one end of it around the butterfly and the other end she fastened to the leaf that she was sitting on. Now she was  sailing really fast on the beautiful water. The sun was shining, the birds and Thumbelina were singing pretty little songs.  It was a wonderful day. She saw babies outside enjoying the flowers as she passed by on her tiny little leaf. Everyone was having a wonderful day."

"Suddenly there was a huge beetle that flew by. The minute he saw Thumbelina he put his feelers around her waist and flew with her into a tree. Her little green leaf floated away and the butterfly floated away with it because he was fastened to it."

"The beetle gave Thumbelina some honey from the flowers to eat and told her that she was very pretty, but she didn't look like him at all. Soon other beetles came to look at her and decided that since she only had two legs that she was ugly, just because she didn't look like them. That's not very nice is it? We all look different don't we?"

Marlee said, "I told somebody their face was dirty because they had freckles. I had never seen freckles before. My mama said not to say something like that to other people 'cause it might hurt their feelings. So I won't do that anymore."
Grandma Lu said, "Good for you, Marlee. I had a little boy that had lots and lots of freckles. I called them sunshine kisses. He would get lots more freckles when he was out in the sun. Some people never get freckles; we are all different."

"As you get older you will meet people that have different color skin, that are taller than you or bigger than you. Everyone is made different. Differences are so interesting. It wouldn't be very fun if we all looked alike, would it?" The children agreed.

"The beetles were all talking naughty about Thumbelina. They said, "She has no feelers, and only two legs, her waist is quite little, not like ours. The other beetles convinced the beetle that had put Thumbelina in the tree that she was ugly, so he picked her up and put her on a daisy and flew away even though he thought that she was pretty."

"As time went by Thumbelina lived all by herself in the forest. She even wove herself a little bed out of blades of grass and put it under a leaf. She drank the dew which is a little bit of water and ate the honey from the flowers. You may put a tiny drop of water on a flower leaf that you have. That's about the amount of water a dew drop has in it. That's not very much is it? We need more to drink than that don't we because we are bigger than Thumbelina was."

"There are four seasons in a year. When Thumbelina was first born it was summer. It was warm and sunny, wasn't it? The flowers were blooming and she kept warm with a flower petal."
"Does anybody know what season comes after Summer? Fall does, doesn't it? With the season changes the weather changes also. It gets colder. The flowers dry up and have no more flower petals until next year. After Fall comes Winter. What happens in the Winter?"
Charlie, Landon, Jordan, and Raelie all had different things to say about wintertime. They talked about Halloween and trick or treating, Santa Claus, and Christmas, and playing in the snow.

Many children had learned that where they lived it got cold in the winter, but just like people differences where we live is different for a lot of people too. Some places even though it is winter it is warm, but for lots of people the weather gets cold and even some snow.
Cooper lives where it is warm most of the time, so he can go swimming most of the year.

" Okay, now that it was winter, Thumbelina had no more flower petals or water to drink. Her clothes became very torn and dirty. Then it began to snow. What do you do when you are cold? You shiver don't you? Well that's what Thumbelina began to do. She decided to walk through the cornfields to see if she could find someplace where she could be warmer. Let's hope she finds somewhere nice and warm."

Would Thumbelina Want To Marry A Frog?

Grandma Lu said, "Well even though the lady's baby was very small, she was very happy. But she decided that the baby needed something to do while she was busy doing housework, so she gave her a dish with water in it. Then she put a flower petal in it. Now do you see what you have made? You have a little boat just like Thumbelina had."

" Thumbelina loved it. She used that little flower petal boat every day.  She would row and row in her little boat and have a good time. Thumbelina loved to sing so while she was floating in her boat she would sing a pretty song. The problem however, was that a mean old frog heard her singing and jumped up on the window sill to watch her."
 'I think that little girl would make a very good wife for my son. I will come back when she is sleeping in her acorn and take her home with me.' "Well that old frog was mean and ugly, but you know what? That frog's son was even meaner."

"What do frogs sound like?" asked Grandma Lu. Well the Community Room sounded like a bunch of ribbitting frogs. That's for sure. So much giggling from both children and adults. What a fun story time this is.

"Well, that old frog jumped right down and took Thumbelina right into the garden. Thumbelina didn't even wake up! When the frog's son saw Thumbelina all he said was 'Croak, Croak'."
Grandma Lu said, "Well, that old frog had a lot to say. She put Thumbelina out on the lily pads and said, 'We must hurry and get a wonderful home ready for your new wife. We will put her out on these lily pads so she can't escape.' "

"The mean old frog swam out to Thumbelina and said that she would make her son a wonderful wife. That woke up our pretty little Thumbelina and she started to cry. She didn't want to be married to an ugly mean old frog."
"When the little fishes in the pond heard Thumbelina cry they decided that they would rescue her. They all got together and chewed the round stalk which held the leaf where Thumbelina stood. Then away went the leaf with Thumbelina on it. She sailed by many little towns and the birds in the bushes and trees saw her and sang her beautiful songs."

"Soon a beautiful butterfly landed on the leaf. That made Thumbelina happy. She knew that now that ugly mean frog couldn't reach her anymore."

Some of the children knew about butterflies and started telling Grandma Lu all about their experiences with them and how pretty they were.

Two sisters, Avis and Makayla, told everyone how they got to go to The Butterfly Palace in Branson, Missouri. They actually got to feed some butterflies some sweet juice called nectar. They even had some land on their hands and shoulders. They had to be very very gentle didn't they?

Grandma Lu Said The Children Were Good Listeners

Grandma Lu was walking around the room and stopping by each child's flower,  petals, and acorns. She spread the petals apart so that they could see inside the flower. She said, "Okay everyone, spread your flower petals apart. Can you see the little yellow part way down inside? Even these little white honey suckle flowers have a little part like the pink and blue ones. Oh good you all were so gentle that you can see inside your flowers. You are good listeners. Okay, now let's begin our story that Marlee picked out."

Once upon a time there was a lady who wished she had a baby, but she never got her wish. So one day she went to her fairy godmother. She said, "Fairy Godmother, I have wished and wished for a little baby, but I never get my wish. Can you help me?"

The Fairy Godmother said, "Oh that's easy. Get a piece of barleycorn that the farmers plant and put it in a flower pot and see what happens."

"The lady did as she was told. She planted a kernel of barleycorn in a flower pot and guess what?"
The children all said, "It grew into a flower just like we have."

Grandma Lu said, "You are exactly right. The lady was so happy she kissed the flower that had grown in the flower pot. Guess what? The flower opened up wide and there in that little yellow part you see was a little bitty baby. She was so little: not even half as big as my thumb." She showed the children her thumb. She said, "Is your thumb the same size as my thumb?" The children all showed her their thumbs. Such laughing there was. They decided that the little baby was really really little if it was half as big as their thumb. The children also noticed that everyone had a different sized thumb. Then they got the giggles.

Marlee said, "Grandma B had me plant a flower at my birthday party. It is growing too. Will it have a baby in it too, 'cause I don't need one. I already got a baby sister, Whitlee Jo."

Bradshaw said, "My baby sister was really little when we got her too, but she's pretty big now. I can play with her sometimes."

Andy said, "My baby sister wasn't that little when we got her, but we got ours at a hospital."

It seemed to Grandma Lu that many of the children had gotten new babies at their house in the last few months, so she said, "Okay, you will all have a chance to talk about your new babies, but for right now, let's see what is happening in our story, okay?" The children agreed and again were quiet and listened to the story of Thumbelina once known as Tiny.

Dishes Of Water And Flower Petals

By the time Grandma Lu and Marlee and several other children and even some grownups had picked out their flower petals, flowers, and acorns, Grandma B had gotten a snack ready for the group. She had seen just how many people were happy that Grandma Lu had not taken a substitute teaching job. They loved her stories and the time that she spent at Marleewood. They also loved the part about her loving snacks because then they got to have a snack too.

 Bradshaw and Andy were even there. They hadn't been to Marleewood for awhile.

Soon there was a knock on the door. There were Hannah and Brenna. Such fun everyone was going to have. Just like the saying goes; The more the merrier!

Grandma B helped Grandma Lu hand out petals and acorns to those folks that didn't have any. Soon they were ready to hear what Grandma Lu had to say. Grandma Lu had never told a story in the Community Room before. She always sat in her easy chair. This was kind of exciting. The children liked being part of the story.

 Grandma Lu said, "Now we need a saucer with some water in it." The children looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. They didn't have a clue what Grandma Lu wanted water for. Grandma B had heard what Grandma Lu said. Soon she had saucers of water and set them on the tables.
Grandma Lu said, "Okay, now each of you put a flower petal in your dish of water. Make sure only flower petals go in the water. You will see why in a little bit."

In the next story we will find out just why the children were putting flower petals in little dishes of water. What fun.

Flowers, Acorns, And Marleewood Children

The next day when Grandma Lu drove into the parking lot she saw Grandma B's car. She grinned to herself. "Yes, old girl, you do love this old building. It is full of memories you have made here. Well, another day for day dreaming. Let's see if Marlee has found that book for me to read to her. I haven't read that story for years and years. It may be a little too old for her. I'll have to see what I can do with it. As she walked towards the door she looked down and smiled. The flowers that the children had planted for her at her Wish Party were blooming. There were even some acorns that had fallen on the ground from the big old oak trees. "Hmm, I think I will have Marlee come out and help me pick some of these flowers and acorns. We will have a little story book party."

Of course, Marlee was all for going outside with Grandma Lu. She loved flowers and had to take a sniff or two.  She said that she would carry in some flowers and flower petals and some acorns. It was like looking for treasure and she had lots of fun. Grandma B came outside too and watched the two smelling and enjoying the flowers. She heard Grandma Lu tell Marlee that one of the flowers was still what you call a bud. It hadn't spread out so you could see the whole flower. But if you spread the pretty pink flower petals apart ever so gently you could see different parts of the flower. "Did you know that a lot of flowers can make new flowers all by themselves? See this tiny tiny part? It is called a stamen. Well this is part of our story today. Let's pick a flower and I'll show you just where a little girl named Tiny was born."

By the time the two got their flowers, petals, and acorns brought in, other children had arrived. They had heard that Grandma Lu was back and was going to tell a story. They wanted to smell and look at the flowers too. They also started picking up flower petals and acorns. They were having such fun. Soon they all went into the Community Room to get started with today's story.