Here are Ladies

story he had ever heard. He could not bear to think of that lovely and delicate lady all alon

h his teeth through the keyhole with a noise like the grinding together of great rocks, and would poke his head through the fan

swelled to the most uncomfortable dimensions, and he resolved to devote his w

r called him a Perfect-Young-Glutton, and a Disgrace-To-Any-Table. He bore these insults in a meek and heroic spirit, whereu

o find than a giant's castle, for it is so large that one can only see it through the wrong end of a telescope; and, furthermore,

, a red shawl, and an umbrella with groceries insi

e said her name was Really-and-Truly, and that she had a magic head, and that if he cut her head off it would

ead anything he wanted to know-so he asked the head what was the way to the nearest giant, and the head replied that if he took the first turning to the le

h, one cap, and one boot-lace. She said that she never took two of anything, because that was not fair, and that she wanted these for a very particular, secret

hich, to the eyes of any one over seven years of age, looked very like any other house, but wh

or, and the head looked at him so directly and vindictively that if he had not been a hero he would have fled. The unexpected is always terrible, and when one goes forth to kill a giant it is unkind of Providence to complicate

ed very stout, and much older than is customary with princesses-but that was owing to the fact that she was under an enchantme

d his heart swelled with pity to think that so beautiful a damsel should be subjected to the tyranny of a giant. These twin passions of pity and love grew to so furious a strength within him that he could no l

looked out. She looked right over his head at first, and then she looked down and saw him, and her eyebrows went far up on her forehead, and her mouth opened; and so he knew tha

of a very powerful enchantment, for she struggled violently, and said incomprehensible things to him, such as "Is it a fire, or were you chased?" and "Where is the cook?" But

that one should always look before one leaped, and that one should never be rescued all at once, but gradually, in order that o

persuasion, that she was not insensible to the charms of his heart

ecurity. At any moment the floor might stand up on one of its corners, or the walls might begin to flap and waggle. But none of these things happened. Before him sat the princess in an attitude of deep dejection, and her lily-white hands rested helplessly on her lap. She told him in a voice that trembled that she would have married him if he had asked her ten yea

ut of the giant if he stabbed him right to the heart. The princess begged him not to kill her husband, and assured him that this giant had not got any hasty-pudding in his heart at all, and that he was really the nicest giant that ever lived, and, further, that h

t he had grave doubts of her being a princess at all, and that if she was married to a giant it was no more than she deserved, and further he had a good mind to rescue the giant from her,

fe-a truly formidable figure, and one which the princess never forgot; and then he walked slowly away, hiding behind a c