dow. He put his foot on it to try if it
would bear him, and, finding it would (for in those times barns were
very strong), he stood upon it, and looked in the fourth-story window.
Taking his little friends out of his pocket, he put them on the
window-sill, where Ting-a-ling remained to see what would happen, but
the Princess jumped right down on the floor. As there was a lighted
candle on the table, she saw that there was some one covered up in the
bed.

"O, there he is!" said she. "Now I will wake him up, and hurry him
away." But just at that moment, as she was going to give the sleeper a
gentle shake, she happened to perceive the yellow boots sticking out
from under the sheet.

"O dear!" said she in a low voice, "if he hasn't gone to bed with his
boots on! And if I wake him, he will jump right down on the floor, and
make a great noise, and we shall be found out."

So she went to the foot of the bed, and pulled off the boots very
gently.

"White stockings!" said she. "What does this mean? I know the Prince
wore green stockings, for I took particular notice how well they looked
with his yellow boots. There must be something wrong, I declare! Let me
run to the other end of the bed, and see how it is there. O my! O my!"
cried she, turning down the sheet. "A woman's head! Wrong both ways! O
what shall I do?"

Letting the sheet drop, she accidentally touched the head, which
immediately rolled off on to the floor.

"Loose! Loose!! Loose!!!" she screamed in bitter agony, clasping her
hands above her head. "What shall I ever do? O misery! misery me! Some
demon has changed him, all but his boots. O Despair! Despair!"

And, without knowing what she did, she rushed frantically out of the
room, and along the dark passage, and popped right down through the open
trap.

"What's up?" said the Giant, putting his face to the window. "What's all
this noise about?"

"O I don't know," said Ting-a-ling, almost crying, "but somebody's head
is off; and it's a lady--all but the boots--and the Princess has run
away! O dear! O dear!"

"Come now!" said Tur-il-i-ra, "Ting-a-ling, get into my pocket. I must
see into this myself, for I can't be waiting here all night, you know."

So the Giant, still standing on the barn, lifted off the roof of the
tower, and threw it to some distance. He then, by the moonlight,
examined the upper story, but, finding no Prince or Princess, brushed
down the walls until he came to the floor, and, taking