Way out in the countryside, where the fields stretched like a green carpet, lived a farmer and his wife. They had a son, but oh my, he was a tiny little fellow! When he was born, he was no bigger than your thumb, so everyone just called him Thumbling.

One day, Thumbling was sitting in a furrow in the field while his father was plowing. Suddenly, a shadow fell over them. It was a giant! A huge, HUGE giant, with legs like tree trunks. The giant peered down and saw tiny Thumbling. "Well, what have we here?" boomed the giant. He gently picked Thumbling up.

The farmer was very scared, but the giant said, "Don't worry, little man. I'll take this tiny boy and raise him. He'll be strong!" And so, the giant took Thumbling to his home in the forest.

The giant fed Thumbling with the best giant food, and Thumbling began to grow. He grew and grew and GREW! Soon, he wasn't Thumbling anymore. He was a young giant, strong and tall.

One day, the young giant said to the old giant who had raised him, "I feel so strong! I want to test my strength."
The old giant smiled. "Alright," he said. "See that big iron staff over there? If you can pull it out of the ground, you can have it."
The young giant went to the staff. It was more like a huge tree trunk made of iron! He grabbed it, pulled, and with a mighty HEAVE, he plucked it from the earth as if it were a carrot.
"Good!" said the old giant. "You are strong indeed. Go out into the world, but remember where you came from."

So, the young giant, carrying his iron staff, decided to visit his first home. He found the farmer, his father, still working in the fields.
"Hello!" boomed the young giant. "Do you need a strong helper?"
The farmer was a bit scared of this enormous young man but said, "Well, yes, I could use some help."

First, the farmer asked him to plow the field. The young giant just picked up the plow himself, without any horses, and plowed the whole field in no time!
Next, the farmer asked him to fetch some wood from the forest. The young giant went into the forest, gathered up a whole pile of trees, tied them together with his staff, and carried them back like a bundle of twigs.

The farmer and his wife started to get worried. "He's too strong!" whispered the farmer's wife. "And he eats so much! We need to get rid of him."
So, the farmer said, "Young man, could you go down to the well and fetch us some water? But be careful, it's a deep well." He hoped the young giant might fall in.
The young giant went to the well. He leaned down, grabbed the bucket, and pulled. He pulled so hard that POP! Up came the bucket, the rope, the pulley, and the entire stone well, right out of the ground! He carried it all back to the farmer.

The farmer was even more worried. "Okay," he said, "I need you to take this sack of grain to the mill and bring back the flour. Tell the miller I sent you." But secretly, the farmer told the miller, "When the young giant comes, give him a good whack and send him away!"

The young giant arrived at the mill. The miller saw him and remembered the farmer's words. The young giant asked for his flour. While the miller was pretending to get it, he snuck up behind the young giant with a big stick. WHACK! He hit the young giant on the back.
But the young giant just turned around. "Was that a fly?" he asked. He then picked up the giant millstone, the one used for grinding all the grain, put it on his shoulder, and walked back to the farmer. "Here's your flour," he said, "and I brought the millstone too, just in case."

The farmer was desperate. "Alright, alright!" he said. "You've worked hard. What do you want for your pay?"
"I just want as much as I can carry," said the young giant.
The farmer chuckled, thinking, "He can't carry that much."
But the young giant found the biggest sack he could, and he started to fill it. In went the farmer's gold, his silver, his tools, his furniture, even the food from the pantry! He filled the sack until it was bulging.
Then, he swung the enormous sack onto his shoulder as if it were a bag of feathers and said, "Goodbye!"

He walked back to the forest, to the old giant who had raised him. He showed him all the treasure. The old giant laughed a big, booming laugh. "You truly are a strong young giant!" he said. And they lived there together, quite comfortably, for a very long time.

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