Page:The Floating Prince - Frank R Stockton.djvu/182

Rh Very early indeed, the giant got up, and smoothed over a large patch of soft earth, right in the middle of his fort, and taking a great sharp-pointed stick, he wrote on the ground, in huge letters:

Then he stepped over the wall of his fort, ditch and all, and ran home as fast as he could go. When he reached his mother's castle, it was breakfast-time, and he told her his adventures, and she laughed heartily over them, and they had such a pleasant time at the table that they each drank two tubs of coffee, whereas they generally took one. During the morning the giant's mother fixed him up a great basket of provisions, containing seventeen barrels of flour, four of bran flour, nine hundred hams, forty bushels of crackers, one hundred pounds of cheese, a thousand boxes of sardines, one hundred dozen lemons, a hundred pounds of sugar, a thousand pounds of dried beef, ten firkins of butter, a thousand bottles of pickles, and ever so many other things that she thought he might want, if the siege held out for a few days.

These things were tolerably heavy of course, and Derido did not make very good time going back. It was sunset before he saw his fort in the distance.

In the morning of that day, not long after the giant had left, the king had got up early, and arranged his troops for the battle. As the giant was not to be seen, they thought, of course, that he was sheltering himself behind his fortifications. So, Gantalor, who was a splendid soldier, drew his men up in line, and put them into position, and marched them here, and marched them there, and took possession of certain positions to the right, and took possession of other positions to the left, and held some of his men in reserve, and put others in the advance, and fixed up tents for hospitals, and sent