him trudging along, whistling a merry tune; and so frightened were they at the sight, that they both ran away as fast as they could.

Then on went the little tailor, following his spuddy nose, till at last he reached the king's court; and then he began to brag very loud of his mighty deeds, saying he was come to serve the king. To try him, they told him that the two giants, who lived in a part of the kingdom a long way off, were become the dread of the whole land; for they had begun to rob, plunder, and ravage all about them, and that if he was so great a man as he said, he should have a hundred soldiers, and should set out to fight these giants; and that if he beat them he should have half the kingdom. "With all my heart!" said he; "but as for your hundred soldiers, I believe I shall do as well without them."

However they set off together, till they came to a wood. "Wait here, my friends," said he to the soldiers. "I will soon give a good account of these giants" and on he went, casting his sharp little eyes here, there, and everywhere around him. After a while he spied them both lying under a tree, and snoring away, till the very boughs whistled with the breeze. "The game's won, for a ducat!" said the little man, as he filled his wallet with stones, and climbed up into the tree under which they lay.

As soon as he was safely up, he threw one stone after another at the nearest giant, till at last he woke up in a rage, and shook his companion, crying out, "What did you strike me for?" "Nonsense, you are

dreaming," said the other; "I did not strike you." Then both lay down to sleep again, and the tailor threw a stone at the second giant, that hit him on the tip of his nose. Up he sprang, and cried, "What are you about? "" struck me. you "I did not," said the other; and on they wrangled for a while, till, as both were tired, they made up the matter and fell asleep again. But then the tailor began his game once more, and flung the largest stone he had in his wallet with all his force, and hit the first giant on the eye. "That is too bad," cried he, roaring as if he was mad: "I will not bear it." So he struck the other a mighty blow. He, of course, was not pleased with this, and gave him just such another box on the ear, and at last a bloody battle began; up flew the trees by the roots, the rocks and stones were sent bang at one another's head, and in the end both lay dead upon the spot. "It is a good thing," said the tailor, "that they let my tree stand, or I must have made a fine jump."

Then down he ran, and took his sword and gave each of them two or three very deep wounds on the breast, and set off to look for the soldiers. "There lie the giants," said he; "I have killed them: but it was no small job, for they even tore trees up in their struggle." "Have you any wounds?" asked they. "Wounds! that is a likely matter, truly," said he; "they could not touch a hair of my head." But the soldiers would not believe him till they rode into the wood, and found the giants weltering in their blood, and the trees lying around torn up by the roots.

The king, after he had got rid of his enemies, was

not much pleased at the thoughts of giving up half his kingdom to a tailor. So he said, "You have not done yet; in the palace court lies a bear, with whom you must pass the night, and if when I rise in the morning I find you still living, you shall then have your reward.” The king thought he had thus got rid of him, for the bear had never yet let any one, who had come within reach of his claws, go away alive. "Very well," said the tailor, "I am willing: who's afraid?"

So when evening came Master Snip was led out, and shut up in the court with the bear, who rose at once to give him a friendly welcome with his paw. "Softly, softly, my friend," said he; "I know a way to please you!" then at his ease, as if he cared nothing about the matter, he pulled out of his pocket some fine walnuts, cracked them, and ate the kernels. When the bear saw this, he took a great fancy to having some nuts too; so the tailor felt in his pocket, and gave him a handful, not of walnuts, but of nice round pebbles. The bear snapped them up, but could not crack one of them, do what he would. "What a clumsy thickhead thou art!" said the beast to itself; "thou canst not crack a nut to-day." Then said he to the tailor, "Friend, pray crack me the nuts." "Why, what a lout you are," "said the tailor, "to have such a jaw as that, and not be able to crack a little nut! Well, be friends with me, and I'll help you." So he took the stones, and slily changed them for nuts, put them in his mouth, and crack they went. "I must try for myself, however," said the bear; now I see how you manage, I am sure I can do it myself." Then the tailor gave

him the cobble-stones again, and the bear lay down and worked away as hard as he could, and bit and bit with all his force, till he broke all his teeth, and lay down quite tired.

But the tailor began to think this would not last long, and that the bear might find him out, and break the bargain; so he pulled a fiddle out from under his coat, and played him a tune. As soon as the bear heard it, he could not help jumping up and beginning to dance; and when he had jigged away for a while, the thing pleased him so much that he said, "Hark ye, friend, is the fiddle hard to play upon?" "No, not at all," said the other; "look ye, I lay my left hand here -and then I take the bow with my right hand, thusand then I scrape it over the strings there—and away it goes merrily-hop, sa, sa! fal, lal, la!” "Will you teach me to fiddle," said the bear, "so that I may have music whenever I want to dance?" "With all my heart, but let me look at your claws; they are very long, that I must first clip your nails just a little bit."

Then Bruin lifted up his paws one after another, and the tailor screwed them down tight, and said, "Now wait till I come with my scissors." So he left the bear to growl, as long and as loud as he liked, and laid himself down on a heap of straw in the corner, and slept soundly. In the morning when the king came, he found the tailor sitting eating his breakfast merrily, and master Bruin looking very much as if he had had a bad night's rest. So the king, when he saw all this, burst out a-laughing, and could no longer help

keeping his word: and thus a little man became great one.

In a country village, over the hills and far away, lived a poor man, who had an only son born to him. Now this child was born under a lucky star, and was

"Der Teufel mit den drei Goldnen Haaren," of Grimm; from Zwehrn and Hesse. We have here taken the appellation "Giant," to avoid offence; and felt less reluctance in the alteration, when we found that some other versions of the same story (as the Popanz in Büsching's Volks-Sagen) omit the diabolic agency. For similar reasons we have not called the cave by its proper name of " Hölle."