He had not been ma-ny mi-nutes in-dul-ging in his grief, when he felt
him-self gent-ly lift-ed from the ground by a gi-gan-tic hand, which
pass-ed him high a-bove the threat-en-ing wa-ters, and pla-ced him in
safe-ty on the op-po-site bank. As the hand put him on his feet, it
be-came in-dis-tinct; but be-fore it had quite van-ish-ed, Wil-lie took
off his hat, and, bow-ing, said,--"Thank you kind-ly, good hand; you
have kept your promise well."

[Illustration: THE OGRESS'S CASTLE.]

Cer-tain now that the fai-ry hands were not a dream, which he had
real-ly be-gun to think them, his cou-rage rose with the con-vic-tion of
the pro-tec-tion which sur-round-ed him from their great pow-er and
good-will to-wards him.

He soon came to a dense wood, where the gi-gan-tic trees, with gnarl-ed
and twist-ed trunks, wound their e-nor-mous limbs a-round each o-ther in
the most fan-tas-tic forms, and the tan-gled un-der-wood twi-ned like
snakes a-cross the path, as if to for-bid any ven-tu-rous foot from
en-ter-ing into the dark green depths. He, how-e-ver, look-ed up-on all
such ob-sta-cles as no-thing in com-pa-ri-son with the last which he had
been en-a-bled to sur-mount with the as-sist-ance of the hands. So he
plun-ged on, strik-ing right and left, to clear his way, with his good
stick. As he was lay-ing a-bout with a right good will, he was brought
to a stand-still by a fe-ro-ci-ous growl. He turn-ed his eyes a-round,
and be-held, much to his dis-may, a fierce wolf pre-par-ing to spring
up-on him. He shrank down with ter-ror as he look-ed up-on the white
teeth and fi-e-ry eyes of the sa-vage brute, and gave him-self up for
lost, when, to his joy, one of the great hands e-mer-ged from a-midst