l over them, and their hearts beat with fear, for
they knew that the giant was coming.

* * * * *

'I smell a stranger,' cried the giant, as he entered, but it was dark
inside the chasm, and he did not see the king, who was crouching down
between the feet of the horses.

'A stranger, my lord! no stranger ever comes here, not even the sun!'
and the king's wife laughed gaily as she went up to the giant and
stroked the huge hand which hung down by his side.

'Well, I perceive nothing, certainly,' answered he, 'but it is very odd.
However, it is time that the horses were fed'; and he lifted down an
armful of hay from a shelf of rock and held out a handful to each
animal, who moved forward to meet him, leaving the king behind. As soon
as the giant's hands were near their mouths they each made a snap, and
began to bite them, so that his groans and shrieks might have been heard
a mile off. Then they wheeled round and kicked him till they could kick
no more. At length the giant crawled away, and lay quivering in a
corner, and the queen went up to him.

'Poor thing! poor thing!' she said, 'they seem to have gone mad; it was
awful to behold.'

'If I had had my soul in my body they would certainly have killed me,'
groaned the giant.

'It was lucky indeed,' answered the queen; 'but tell me, where is thy
soul, that I may take care of it?'

'Up there, in the Bonnach stone,' answered the giant, pointing to a
stone which was balanced loosely on an edge of rock. 'But now leave me,
that I may sleep, for I have far to go to-morrow.'

Soon snores were heard from the corner where the giant lay, and then the
queen lay down too, and the horses, and the king was hidden between
them, so that none could see him.

Before the dawn the giant rose and went out, and immediately the queen
ran up to the Bonnach stone, and tugged and pushed at it till it was
quite steady on its ledge, and could not fall over. And so it was in the
evening when the giant came home; and when they saw his shadow, the king
crept down in front of the horses.

'Why, what have you done to the Bonnach stone?' asked the giant.

'I feared lest it should fall over, and be broken, with your soul in
it,' said the queen, 'so I put it further back on the ledge.

'It is not there that my soul is,' answered he, 'it is on the threshold.
But it is time the horses were fed'; and he fetched the hay, and gave it
to them, and they bit and kicked h