Page 587 - Child's own book

hung, bent it down, and giving it to the tailor to hold, bid him
eat them. But the tailor was ranch too weak to hold the tree
down, and so, when the giant let go, the tree sprang back again,
and the little tailor was carried with it into the air. As soon
as he fell down without injury, the giant asked, “ What 13
this % have you not strength enough to hold that weak twig %7t
— ie I do not want for strength/* answered the tailor; il do you
think that was anything for a man who killed seven at one
blow ; I sprang over the tree because the sportsmen are shoot­
ing in the wood yonder. Spring after me if you can*” The
giaut made the attempt, hut could not clear the tree, getting
entangled in the boughs ; so the tailorwas again victorious, and
had the best hand in this matter.
Then the giant said, “ If you are such a brave chap* come
along with me to my dwelling, and stop a night with us,” The
tailor was ready, and went with liim ; and when they came to
the house, there sat other giants by the fire, each with a Toasted
sheep in his hand, eating away* The taiior placed himself
by the fire, thinking, u This is certainly more extensive than
my workshop; 11 and presently the giant showed him where he
was to lie down and sleep. The bed, however, was much too
large for him, so he did not lie down bx It, but crept into a cor­
ner, When it was midnight, and the giant thought the tailor
was in a deep sleep, he got up, and taking a great iron bar, he
knocked the Led through at one stroke, and thought he had
given the finishing blow to the grasshopper. At the earliest
dawn the giants went off into the forest, quite forgetting the
tailor, when all at once he came up quite merry, with great
strides, which so frightened them that, fearing he would beat
them all to death, they ran away in haste.
The tailor journeyed on further, always "following his nose;
and after he had travelled a great distance he came to the court­