"Ha! is it thou, my minikin--my miller's thumb--my prince of

cacodemons--my little mouse?"

"Ay," said Dickie, "the mouse which gnawed asunder the toils, just when

the lion who was caught in them began to look wonderfully like an ass."

"Thy, thou little hop-the-gutter, thou art as sharp as vinegar this

afternoon! But tell me, how didst thou come off with yonder jolterheaded

giant whom I left thee with? I was afraid he would have stripped thy

clothes, and so swallowed thee, as men peel and eat a roasted chestnut."

"Had he done so," replied the boy, "he would have had more brains in

his guts than ever he had in his noddle. But the giant is a courteous

monster, and more grateful than many other folk whom I have helped at a

pinch, Master Wayland Smith."

"Beshrew me, Flibbertigibbet," replied Wayland, "but thou art sharper

than a Sheffield whittle! I would I knew by what charm you muzzled

yonder old bear."

"Ay, that is in your own manner," answered Dickie; "you think fine

speeches will pass muster instead of good-will. However, as to this

honest porter, you must know that when we presented ourselves at the

gate yonder, his brain was over-burdened with a speech that had been

penned for him, and which proved rather an overmatch for his gigantic

faculties. Now this same pithy oration had been indited, like sundry

others, by my learned magister, Erasmus Holiday, so I had heard it often

enough to remember every line. As soon as I heard him blundering and

floundering like a fish upon dry land, through the first verse, and

perceived him at a stand, I knew where the shoe pinched, and helped him

to the next word, when he caught me up in an ecstasy, even as you saw

but now. I promised, as the price of your admission, to hide me under

his bearish gaberdine, and prompt him in the hour of need. I have just

now been getting some food in the Castle, and am about to return to

him."

"That's right--that's right, my dear Dickie," replied Wayland;

"haste thee, for Heaven's sake! else the poor giant will be utterly

disconsolate for want of his dwarfish auxiliary. Away with thee,

Dickie!"

"Ay, ay!" answered the boy--"away with Dickie, when we have got what

good of him we can. You will not let me know the story of this lady,

then, who is as much sister of thine as I am?"




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