Presently Ned began to feel hungry, and opening his knapsack, took out his bread and cheese.

"What is that white stuff?" asked the giant, who had never seen cheese before.

"That is a stone," answered Ned, commencing to eat it with a hungry appet.i.te.

"Do you eat stones?" asked the giant.

"Oh yes," answered Ned. "That's my regular food, which explains why I'm not so big as you who eat oxen; but it's also the reason why, little as I am, I am ten times as strong as you are. Now take me to your house."

The giant looked at the Magic Axe which had so nearly destroyed his forest, and then at Ned eating a stone with apparent relish.

"I will," he said, and humbly led the way to his monstrous cabin.

"Now listen," said Ned to the giant after they were fairly seated, "one of us must be the master, and the other the servant. If I can't do whatever you do, I am to be your slave; if you're not able to do whatever I do, you are to be mine."

"Agreed," said the giant. "I'd be tickled to death to have a little servant like you. It's too much work for me to think, and you have brains enough for both. Well, let's start the trial. Here are my two buckets,--go and get the water to make the soup!"

Ned looked at the buckets, the tops of which he couldn't even see, for they were two enormous hogsheads, ten feet high and six broad. It would have been much easier for him to drown himself in them than to move them.

"Ho, ho!" shouted the giant. "Do what I do and get the water."

"What's the good of that?" replied Ned. "I'll go get the spring itself to put in the pot," knowing that he could easily run back to the king's castle for the little magic nutsh.e.l.l.

"No, no!" said the giant, "that won't do. You have already half spoiled my forest with your Magic Axe. I don't want you to take my spring away.

You may attend to the fire, and I'll go for the water."

So the giant hung up the kettle, put into it an ox cut into pieces, fifty cabbages, and a wagon-load of carrots, skimming the broth with a frying pan, tasting it every now and then until it was done. When everything was ready, he turned and said:

"Now we'll see if you can do what I can. I feel like eating the whole ox, and you into the bargain. I think I'll serve you for dessert."

"All right," answered little Ned. But before sitting down he slipped his knapsack under his jacket.

Then the two champions set to work. Perhaps Ned was a trifle nervous, knowing only too well that if he failed he must be the giant's servant.

Well, the giant ate and ate, and Ned wasn't idle; only he pitched everything, beef, cabbage, carrots, and all, into his knapsack when the giant wasn't looking.

"Ouf!" at last grunted the giant, "I can't do much more. I've got to undo the lower b.u.t.ton of my waistcoat."

"Eat away, starveling!" cried Ned, sticking half a cabbage into his knapsack.

"Ouf!" groaned the giant, "I must loosen another b.u.t.ton. But what sort of an ostrich's stomach have you got, Kiddo? I should say you were used to eating stones!"

"Eat away, lazy-bones!" said Ned, sticking a huge chunk of beef into his knapsack.

"Ouf!" sighed the giant for the third time, "I must open the third b.u.t.ton."

"Bah!" answered Ned. "It's the easiest thing to relieve yourself," and taking his knife, he slit his jacket and the knapsack under it the whole length of his stomach. "Now's your turn. Do as I do, _if you can!_"

"Excuse me!" gasped the giant. "You win. I'd rather be your servant than do that."

Then kissing Ned's hand in token of submission, he lifted his little master on his shoulder, and slinging the six bags of gold over his back, started off through the forest.

"Wait a minute," said Ned, "I've forgotten my Magic tools." So the giant picked them up and thrusting them in his pocket, again set off at a tremendous rate.

After a while, they came in sight of a great castle where lived a lord even more wicked than the cruel Blue Beard. As they drew nearer, they heard loud screams like those of some fair lady in distress. The next minute the wicked lord dragged a lovely lady by the hair across the courtyard.

With one stride the giant stepped over the castle wall.

"Shall I toss him over the moon?" he asked.

"No, leave him to me," replied Ned. The wicked lord trembled and grew as pale as a white swan that swam nearby in a beautiful fountain.

"My giant servant at a sign from me, will pitch you over the moon. But instead, as you have the reputation of being the greatest liar that ever lived, we will see who can tell the biggest story, you or I. If you lose, you shall give your castle to this fair lady and take yourself off, I don't care where, but you must never return."

At once the wicked lord commenced to tell the biggest story he could imagine.

"I have a bull so large that a man can sit on each of his horns, and the two can't touch each other with a twenty foot pole."

"Oh, that's nothing," replied Ned. "At home on the farm we have a bull so large that a servant sitting on one of his horns can't see the servant sitting on the other."

"You win," laughed the pretty princess, clapping her hands at Ned. Then the wicked lord went to his stable and saddling his best horse, rode away. But as he pa.s.sed through the gate, Ned touched his steed with his magic gold ring. Instantly the horse turned into an immense bird and flew away. But where he went no one knows to this day.

MAGIC EARS

The Man with Ears like a Donkey invited Ned to eat with him.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

MAGIC EARS

"DEAR me," said the giant suddenly. "I've forgotten all about my errand.

You and your Magic Axe have robbed me of my memory," and the big man scratched his hand and looked anxiously at Ned.

"What is it?"

"I was to take a chicken to my old mother," answered the giant sadly.

"Go ahead," said Ned. "I can take care of myself. At any rate it is about time my friend the Gnome came back to me."

"You are very kind," said the giant. "Here are your Magic Axe and your Magic Pickaxe. I almost forgot them," and he set off at a great rate for his mother's house.

Ned, too, quickened his pace, for it was growing late, and the shadows creeping from tree to tree. At length he saw a light in the distance. It was a very little light, not much larger than a star, and at first Ned thought it might be a giant firefly. However, he kept on and after a while it turned out to be a little candle in the window of a poor woodcutter's hut. Knocking on the door, it was presently opened by a strange looking man. He had long hairy ears like a donkey and was dressed in the skins of wild animals.

"Welcome," he said in a kindly voice, "I am just preparing my evening meal. Come in and eat." Ned followed the donkey-eared man into the cottage and sat down at the rude wooden table on which were spread black bread and beans.