. Little Tom . ee. The herb woman left him busily working and, taking her hoe, went to the wellby the chapel to learn how the kingdom of the gnomes had fared. She took out thestone engraved with the horseshoe and dug behind in until she saw a little corridor,in which was a confusion of stones, mud and water. Everything was torn down andruined and of the gnomes, she heard not a sound. She felt very sad to think they allhad perished and she started to cover the hole and replace the stone. But when shetook it up, she was surprised to find how light it seemed. Examining it more care-fully, she not
. Little Tom . ee. The herb woman left him busily working and, taking her hoe, went to the wellby the chapel to learn how the kingdom of the gnomes had fared. She took out thestone engraved with the horseshoe and dug behind in until she saw a little corridor,in which was a confusion of stones, mud and water. Everything was torn down andruined and of the gnomes, she heard not a sound. She felt very sad to think they allhad perished and she started to cover the hole and replace the stone. But when shetook it up, she was surprised to find how light it seemed. Examining it more care-fully, she noticed at the back a tiny, polished metal door. Upon pressing this withher finger, it opened and she saw that the inside of the stone was entirely hollowedout and filled with many little particles. It occurred to her that, perhaps after all, some possessions of the gnomes re-mained that might prove useful to Tom; so she put the stone on her shoulder andtaking care that nothing should fall out, carried it home. 23. When she came into the big room, she found that Tom had already made thefloor inside his castle and was now engaged in building a wall around it out ofshining, little pebbles. The Godmother laid a cloth on the top of the press and placedthe stone on the cloth. »Little Tom,« she said, »I have brought you something for remembrance. Yourkingdom is all gone; but do not be sorry, for you will stay with me and we willlive happily together. Now, perhaps you will find something in this stone that willbe useful to you.« Tom crawled sadly into the stone, but, at once, shouted with pleasure. «DearGodmother, he called, »this is our royal treasury and it contains furniture, clothes,linen, arms and dishes; all sorts of things. Now, I have everything I need and youwill see how nicely I will arrange my new home.« At once, he began to carry out of the stone the rich stores he found there. HisGodmother placed a tiny piece of cloth ay the stone and when Tom had piled it highwith cu
Size: 2121px × 1179px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookidlittletom00t, bookyear1922
