other end of it at all, except for the great fire that was burning there,
diminished to a spark in the distance. Towards this fire she ran as fast
as she could, and was not far from it when something fell before her with
a great clatter, over which she tumbled, and went rolling on the floor.
She was not much hurt, however, and got up in a moment. Then she saw that
she had fallen over something not unlike a great iron bucket. When she
examined it more closely, she discovered that it was a thimble; and
looking up to see who had dropped it, beheld a huge face, with spectacles
as big as the round windows in a church, bending over her, and looking
everywhere for the thimble. Tricksey-Wee immediately laid hold of it in
both her arms, and lifted it about an inch nearer to the nose of the
peering giantess. This movement made the old lady see where it was, and,
her finger popping into it, it vanished from the eyes of Tricksey-Wee,
buried in the folds of a white stocking, like a cloud in the sky, which
Mrs. Giant was busy darning. For it was Saturday night, and her husband
would wear nothing but white stockings on Sunday."

"But how could he be so particular about white stockings on Sunday, and
eat little children?" asked one of the group.

"Why, to be sure," I answered, "he did eat little children, but only
_very_ little ones; and if ever it crossed his mind that it was wrong to
do so, he always said to himself that he wore whiter stockings on Sunday
than any other giant in all Giantland.

"At that instant, Tricksey-Wee heard a sound like the wind in a tree full
of leaves, and could not think what it could be; till, looking up, she
found that it was the giantess whispering to her; and when she tried very
hard, she could hear what she said well enough.