dinner."

Prince Fiddlecumdoo bowed low and accepted the invitation, but when he
endeavored to enter the house he found the steps so big that even the
first one was higher than his head, and he could not climb to the top
of it.

Seeing his difficulty the giant carefully picked him up with one finger
and his thumb, and put him down on the palm of his other hand.

"Do not leave my bicycle," said the Prince, "for should anything happen
to it I could not get home again."

So the giant put the bicycle in his vest pocket, and then he entered
the house and walked to the kitchen, where his wife was engaged
preparing the dinner.

"Guess what I've found," said the giant to his wife, holding his hand
doubled up so she could not see the Prince.

"I'm sure I don't know," answered the woman.

"But, guess!" pleaded the giant.

"Go away and don't bother me," she replied, bending over the stewpan,
"or you won't have any dinner to-day."

The giant, however, was in a merry mood, and for a joke he suddenly
opened his hand and dropped the Prince down his wife's neck.

"Oh, oh!" she screamed, trying to get at the place where the Prince had
fallen, which was near the small of her back. "What is it? I'm sure
it's some horrible crocodile, or dragon, or something that will bite
me!" And the poor woman lay down on the carpet and began to kick her
heels against the floor in terror.

The giant roared with laughter, but the Prince, now being able to crawl
out, scrambled from the lady's neck, and, standing beside her head, he
made a low bow and said:

"Do not be afraid, Madam; it is only I. But I must say it was a very
ungallant trick for your husband to play on you, to say nothing of my
feelings in the matter."

"So it was," she exclaimed, getting upon her feet again, and staring
curiously at Fiddlecumdoo. "But tell me who you are and where you came
from."

The giant, having enjoyed his laugh, now introduced the Prince to his
wife, and as dinner was ready to serve they sat down at the table
together.

Fiddlecumdoo got along very well at dinner, for the giant thoughtfully
placed him on the top of the table, where he could walk around as he
pleased. There being no knife nor fork small enough for him to use, the
Prince took one of the giant's toothpicks, which was as big as a sword,
and with this served himself from the various dishes that stood on the
table.

When the meal was over the giant lighted his pipe, the bowl of which