I am too lit-tle for you to wish to harm." The arms va-nish-ed, and
Wil-lie pro-ceed-ed on his way.

He felt so re-as-su-red by this ex-tra-or-di-na-ry ad-ven-ture, which
pro-mi-sed so well for his fu-ture suc-cess, that he leap-ed and dan-ced
a-long his path with ex-cite-ment and de-light: he look-ed for-ward to
no ob-sta-cle to stop him in his ca-reer, and he pur-su-ed his way
re-joic-ing.

[Illustration: THE OGRESS'S CASTLE.]

How-e-ver, as the day grew on, he slack-en-ed his pace, for the
un-ac-cus-tom-ed fa-tigue be-gan to tell up-on his frame; so at last he
threw him-self up-on the grass, and look-ed up-wards to the blue sky,
and watch-ed the flee-cy clouds pur-sue each o-ther a-cross the
bound-less ex-panse of the hea-vens. As he lay, half dream-ing, he
thought he heard some-thing like the roll-ing of thun-der: he lis-ten-ed
with great-er at-ten-tion, un-til he was as-sur-ed there was some cause
in his close vi-ci-ni-ty for the un-u-su-al and cu-ri-ous sounds. He
a-rose, and pro-ceed-ed to-wards the di-rec-tion of the sounds, which
grew loud-er and loud-er as he ad-van-ced; when, com-ing to the edge of
a pre-ci-pice, he be-held a grand and aw-ful rush of foam-ing wa-ters,
which threw them-selves head-long down the riv-en rocks with a
deaf-en-ing roar and tu-mult.

He look-ed from right to left, and his way seem-ed bar-red by this
tre-men-dous ob-sta-cle. His heart fail-ed him as he saw how
im-pos-si-ble it was for him to pro-ceed: in-deed, as he sat him-self
down on the edge of the ca-ta-ract, he could not help weep-ing at his
un-ex-pect-ed di-lem-ma.