poke to
him, and told him what he was after.

"That isn't exactly his name," said the green fairy, politely, "but I
know what you mean. If you come this way, I can show him to you."

So Ting-a-ling followed him, and presently they came to the edge of an
opening in the middle of the forest; and there, sure enough, was the
Kyrofatalapynx. With one of his great red tails coiled around an immense
oak-tree, and the other around a huge rock, he sat with his elephantine
legs gathered up under him, as if he were about to spring over the
tree-tops. But he had no such idea. In his great hands, as big as
travelling-trunks, he held a long iron bar, one end of which he was
sharpening against a stone. By his side lay an immense bow, made of a
tall young yew-tree, and the cord was a long and tough grape-vine. As he
sat sharpening this great arrow, he grinned until his horrid teeth
looked like a pale-fence around a little garden, and he muttered to
himself as he worked away,--"Four hundred and nine more rubs, and I can
send it twang through him; twang, twang, twang!"

"Isn't he horrid?" whispered Ting-a-ling.

"Yes, indeed," said the green fairy. "When he was young, he came out of
the mouth of a volcano; and the King here, who is very fond of wonderful
things, got Tur-il-i-ra to catch him, and chain him up for him in a
great yard he had made for him. But now that he is grown up, no chains
can hold him, and I expect he will kill the Giant with that great iron
arrow, before he can come near him."

"O!" cried Ting-a-ling, "he mustn't do that. We must never let him do
that!"

"We!" said the fairy, in a voice of astonishment.

"Yes, yes, I mean us. O, what shall we do? Let's cut his bowstring,"
said Ting-a-ling, in great excitement, and drawing his little sword. The
green fairy, although polite, could not help laughing at this idea; but
Ting-a-ling slipped softly to where the bow was lying, a little behind
the Kyrofatalapynx, and commenced to cut away at it; but although the
green fairy took the sword when he was tired, they could make but little
impression on the stout grape-vine, nearly as thick as they were high.

"Let's nick the sword," said Ting-a-ling, "and then it will be a saw."
And so, with a sharp little flint, they nicked the edge of it, and the
edge of the green fairy's knife (for he had no sword), and as they
commenced to saw away as hard as they could at the grape-vine, they
heard the Kyrofatalapynx muttering, "Only t