All at once she came across the door of a field-mouse , who had a little hole under a corn-stalk . There the mouse lived warm and snug , with a store-room full of corn , a splendid kitchen and dining-room . Poor little Thumbelina went up to the door and begged for a little piece of barley , for she had not had anything to eat for the last two days . ` Poor little creature ! ' said the field-mouse , for she was a kind-hearted old thing at the bottom . ` Come into my warm room and have some dinner with me . ' As Thumbelina pleased her , she said : ` As far as I am concerned you may spend the winter with me ; but you must keep my room clean and tidy , and tell me stories , for I like that very much . ' And Thumbelina did all that the kind old field-mouse asked , and did it remarkably well too . ` Now I am expecting a visitor , ' said the field-mouse ; ` my neighbour comes to call on me once a week . He is in better circumstances than I am , has great , big rooms , and wears a fine black-velvet coat . If you could only marry him , you would be well provided for . But he is blind . You must tell him all the prettiest stories you know . ' But Thumbelina did not trouble her head about him , for he was only a mole . He came and paid them a visit in his black-velvet coat . ` He is so rich and so accomplished , ' the field-mouse told her . ` His house is twenty times larger than mine ; he possesses great knowledge , but he can not bear the sun and the beautiful flowers , and speaks slightingly of them , for he has never seen them . ' Thumbelina had to sing to him , so she sang ` Lady-bird , lady-bird , fly away home ! ' and other songs so prettily that the mole fell in love with her ; but he did not say anything , he was a very cautious man . A short time before he had dug a long passage through the ground from his own house to that of his neighbour ; in this he gave the field-mouse and Thumbelina permission to walk as often as they liked .
But he begged them not to be afraid of the dead bird that lay in the passage : it was a real bird with beak and feathers , and must have died a little XXXXX ago , and now laid buried just where he had made his tunnel .
Poor dining-room door head hole house mouse thing time visitor