do you send me to draw water?' The gardener's wife went out, and she
said the same thing. Then the gardener went himself, and brought the
lady from the tree, and led her in. And he told her that a stranger
was to marry the king's dochter, and showed her the man: and it was
Nicht Nought Nothing asleep in a chair. And she saw him, and cried to
him, 'Waken, waken, and speak to me!' But he would not waken, and
syne she cried,

'I cleaned the stable, I laved the loch, and I clamb the tree,
And all for the love of thee,
And thou wilt not waken and speak to me.'

The king and the queen heard this, and came to the bonny young lady,
and she said,

'I canna get Nicht Nought Nothing to speak to me for all that I can
do.'

Then were they greatly astonished when she spoke of Nicht Nought
Nothing, and asked where he was, and she said, 'He that sits there in
the chair.' Then they ran to him and kissed him and called him their
own dear son, and he wakened, and told them all that the giant's
dochter had done for him, and of all her kindness. Then they took her
in their arms and kissed her, and said she should now be their
dochter, for their son should marry her.

And they lived happy all their days.

In this variant of the story, which we may use as our text, it is to be
noticed that a lacuna exists. The narrative of the flight omits to