im as before, till he lay half dead on
the ground.

Next morning he rose and went out, and the queen ran to the threshold of
the cave, and washed the stones, and pulled up some moss and little
flowers that were hidden in the crannies, and by and bye when dusk had
fallen the giant came home.

'You have been cleaning the threshold,' said he.

'And was I not right to do it, seeing that your soul is in it?' asked
the queen.

[Illustration: THE GIANT'S SHADOW]

'It is not there that my soul is,' answered the giant. 'Under the
threshold is a stone, and under the stone is a sheep, and in the sheep's
body is a duck, and in the duck is an egg, and in the egg is my soul.
But it is late, and I must feed the horses'; and he brought them the
hay, but they only bit and kicked him as before, and if his soul had
been within him, they would have killed him outright.

* * * * *

It was still dark when the giant got up and went his way, and then the
king and the queen ran forward to take up the threshold, while the
horses looked on. But sure enough! just as the giant had said,
underneath the threshold was the flagstone, and they pulled and tugged
till the stone gave way. Then something jumped out so suddenly, that it
nearly knocked them down, and as it fled past, they saw it was a sheep.

'If the slim yellow dog of the greenwood were only here, he would soon
have that sheep,' cried the king; and as he spoke, the slim yellow dog
appeared from the forest, with the sheep in his mouth. With a blow from
the king, the sheep fell dead, and they opened its body, only to be
blinded by a rush of wings as the duck flew past.

'If the hoary hawk of the rock were only here he would soon have that
duck,' cried the king; and as he spoke the hoary hawk was seen hovering
above them, with the duck in his mouth. They cut off the duck's head
with a swing of the king's sword, and took the egg out of its body, but
in his triumph the king held it carelessly, and it slipped from his
hand, and rolled swiftly down the hill right into the river.

'If the brown otter of the stream were only here, he would soon have
that egg,' cried the king; and the next minute there was the brown
otter, dripping with water, holding the egg in his mouth. But beside the
brown otter, a huge shadow came stealing along--the shadow of the giant.

The king stood staring at it, as if he were turned into stone, but the
queen snatched the egg from