his tricks." In the morning, the giants went off into the woods, and quite forgot him, till all of a sudden they met 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.

THE GIANT AND THE TAILOR.

PART II.

Then on went the little tailor, till at last he reached the king's court, and 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 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." So on he went, casting his sharp little eyes here, there, and everywhere around him. After awhile, he spied them both lying under a tree, snoring away till the very

boughs whistled with the breeze. "The game's won for a penny," said the little man, as he filled his wallet with stones, and climbed 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 comrade, 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 stones at the second giant, till he sprung up and cried, "What are you about? You struck me!" "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.

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 nose. "That is too bad," cried he in a rage; "I will not stand 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. At last a bloody battle began; up flew the trees by their roots, the rocks and stones went bang at one another's heads, and in the end both lay dead on 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 a very fine wound or two on the breast, and set off to look for the soldiers. "There

lie the giants," said he; "I have killed them, but it has been no small job, for they even tore trees up in their fury." Have you any wounds?" asked they. "That is a likely matter, truly," said he, "they have not touched a hair of my head." But the soldiers would not believe him till they rode into the wood, and found the giants lying dead, and the trees around torn up by their roots.

The king, after he had got rid of his enemies, was not much pleased with the thought of giving up half his kingdom to a tailor. So he said, "You have not yet done; 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." Now he thought in this way he had got rid of him, for the bear had never yet let any one go away alive who had come within reach of his claws. "Very well," said the tailor, "I am willing."

So when evening came our little tailor 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, and 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 nice round pebbles. The bear snapt them up, but could not crack one of them, do what he would.

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! engage to be friends with me, and I will help you.' So he took the stones, and slyly 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 you do it, 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 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 on?" "No, not at all," said the tailor; "look ye, I lay my left hand here, and then I take the bow with my right hand thus, and 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," said the tailor; "but let me look at your claws; they are so very long, that I must first clip your nails a little bit." Then the bear lifted up his claws one after another,

D

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 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 merrily, eating his breakfast, and could no longer help keeping his word. Thus the little man became a great man, for the king gave him half his kingdom.

MEDDLESOME MATTY.

One ugly trick has often spoiled
The sweetest and the best;
Matilda, though a pleasant child,
One ugly trick possessed,
Which, like a cloud before the skies,
Hid all her better qualities.

Sometimes she'd lift the teapot lid,
To peep at what was in it;
Or tilt the kettle, if you did
But turn your back a minute.
In vain you told her not to touch,
Her trick of meddling grew so much.

Her grandmamma went out one day,
And by mistake she laid
Her spectacles and snuff-box gay
Too near the little maid.

"Ah, well," thought she, "I'll try them on,
As soon as grandmamma is gone."