ays on rich embroidered
cushions, never stirring from his place, but admiring the view of trees
covered with the richest burned almonds, grottoes of sugar-candy, a jet
d'eau of champagne, a wide sea which tasted of sugar instead of salt,
and a bright clear pond, filled with gold-fish, that let themselves be
caught whenever he pleased. Nothing could be more complete, and yet,
very strange to say, Master No-book did not seem particularly happy!
This appears exceedingly unreasonable, when so much trouble was taken to
please him; but the truth is, that every day he became more fretful and
peevish. No sweetmeats were worth the trouble of eating, nothing was
pleasant to play at, and in the end he wished it were possible to sleep
all day, as well as all night.

Not a hundred miles from the fairy Do-nothing's palace, there lived a
most cruel monster called the giant Snap-'em-up, who looked, when he
stood up, like the tall steeple of a great church, raising his head so
high, that he could peep over the loftiest mountains, and was obliged to
climb up a ladder to comb his own hair.

Every morning regularly, this prodigiously great giant walked round the
world before breakfast for an appetite, after which, he made tea in a
large lake, used the sea as a slop-basin, and boiled his kettle on Mount
Vesuvius. He lived in great style, and his dinners were most
magnificent, consisting very often of an elephant roasted whole, ostrich
patties, a tiger smothered in onions, stewed lions, and whale soup; but
for a side-dish his greatest favourite consisted of little boys, as fat
as possible, fried in crumbs of bread, with plenty of pepper and salt.

No children were so well fed, or in such good condition for eating, as
those in the fairy Do-nothing's garden, who was a very particular friend
of the great Snap-'em-up's, and who sometimes laughingly said she would
give him a license, and call her own garden his "preserve," because she
allowed him to help himself, whenever he pleased, to as many of her
visitors as he chose, without taking the trouble even to count them,
and in return for such extreme civility, the giant very frequently
invited her to dinner.

Snap-'em-up's favourite sport was, to see how many brace of little boys
he could bag in a morning; so in passing along the streets, he peeped
into all the drawing-rooms without having occasion to get upon tiptoe,
and picked up every young gentleman who was idly looking out of the
windows,