Page:The Allies Fairy Book.djvu/52

 mother puts him in order for his journey.” The queen arrayed the cook’s son, and she gave him to the giant by the hand. The giant went away with him; but he had not gone far when he put a rod in the hand of the little laddie. The giant asked him: “If thy father had that rod, what would he do with it?” “If my father had that rod he would beat the dogs and the cats, if they would be going near the king’s meat,” said the little laddie. “Thou’rt the cook’s son,” said the giant. He catches him by the two small ankles and knocks him—”Sgleog”—against the stone that was beside him. The giant turned back to the castle in rage and madness, and he said that if they did not turn out the king’s son to him, the highest stone of the castle would be the lowest. Said the queen to the king: “We’ll try it yet; the butler’s son is of the same age as our son.” She arrayed the butler’s son, and she gives him to the giant by the hand. The giant had not gone far when he put the rod in his hand. “If thy father had that rod,” said the giant, “what would he do with it?” “He would beat the dogs’ and cats when they would be coming near the king’s bottles and glasses.” “Thou art the son of the butler,” says the §isnt, and dashed his brains out too. The giant returned in very great rage and anger. The earth shook under the soles of his feet, and the castle shook and all that was in it. “Out here thy son,” says the giant, “or in a twinkling the stone that is highest in the dwelling will be the lowest.” So needs must they had to give the king’s son to the giant.

The giant took him to his own house, and he reared him as his own son. On a day of days when the giant was from home, the lad heard the sweetest music he ever heard in a room at the top of the giant’s house. At a glance he saw the finest face he had ever seen. It was the giant’s youngest daughter, who beckoned to him to come a bit nearer to her, and she told him to go this time, but to be sure to be at the same place about that dead midnight.