“Never mind, father! I will be back before long.” Then they were off, Tom sitting on the rim of the man’s hat to see the country as they passed along.
After a while it grew dark, and the man sat down and laid his hat on the ground. Tom cried out: “Good-by, my master! I’m gone!” And with that he ran over a furrow in the field and slipped into a mouse hole. The man ran after him and poked about with his stick, but Tom was away down in the ground by this time.
By and by he heard two men passing. One of them said:
“How can we manage to get the farmer’s money?” The other said: “If we only had some little boy to help us!” Tom followed them down the road listening to this talk and finally called out:
“I will help you get the farmer’s money.” They were greatly surprised to see such a little man, but finally agreed to take him along.
They came to the farmer’s house and Tom slipped through a crack in the boards, and called out very loud: “Here is the money! Hold your hand while I hand it out to you!” This, of course, woke up the cook who struck a light, and the robbers ran away leaving Tom in the house. The cook could not find anybody, for Tom had slipped into the barn and gone to sleep on the hay.
Next morning the farmer came out to feed the cow, and taking a fork full of hay pitched it over in the rack. Tom was in the hay fast asleep, and when he woke up he was in the cow’s stomach, and more hay kept on coming down until Tom could hardly find room to turn round. And there we will leave him until to-morrow.
_No matter how much trouble we may be in, there is always a good way out._
We left Tom Thumb inside the cow. More hay kept on coming down until Tom cried out: “Don’t send any more hay! Don’t send any more hay!” The cook was milking just at that time, and hearing the noise inside the cow she was so astonished that she fell off the stool and spilled all the milk.
“The cow is bewitched! She is talking aloud and says she doesn’t want any more hay!” The farmer ran to the barn and listened to the voice inside the cow.
“Mercy on me!” he cried. “Surely the cow is bewitched. We must kill her at once!” So he took an ax and cut her all to pieces, and threw the stomach with Tom inside out into the road.