.

“Little Tom Thumb had heard all that was said.
Having discovered, when in bed, that serious talk
was going on, he had got up softly, and had
slipped under his father’s stool in order to listen
without being seen. He went back to bed, but did not
sleep a wink for the rest of the night, thinking over
what he had better do. In the morning he rose very
early and went to the edge of a brook.
There he filled his pockets with little white
pebbles and came quickly home again.”
.
by Gustave Doré
Illustration for Little Tom Thumb, 1863
From Perrault’s Fairy Tales