Winter has come and I’ve stayed too long. I’m freezing to death in the cornfield, but I can’t leave the tiny maiden. I’m pleading with her. “Don’t stay underground with the mice and the moles. Fly with me to the flowers and the sun. That’s where you belong. Come on, let’s go!”

The Swallow Freezing to Death in Thumbelina, Hans Christian Andersen. Illustration by Margaret Tarrant.