The marsh, the river, the meadow, and the cornfield were all too big for me! I was not safe until the old mother mouse took me in.

How can I leave the mouse hole now, even if I must marry a blind old mole? He will keep me safe! Yet I will not see the sun again, nor sing of any happy thing that he has never seen.

Tiny in the Big World in Thumbelina, Hans Christian Andersen. Illustration by Adrienne Segur.