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?"