e he would have him for his supper.
Nicht Nought Nothing began early next morning and tried to lave the
water with his pail, but the loch was never getting any less, and he
did no ken what to do; but the giant's dochter called on all the fish
in the sea to come and drink the water, and very soon they drank it
dry. When the giant saw the work done he was in a rage, and said,
'I've a worse job for you to-morrow; there is a tree seven miles high,
and no branch on it, till you get to the top, and there is a nest, and
you must bring down the eggs without breaking one, or else I will have
you for my supper.' At first the giant's dochter did not know how to
help Nicht Nought Nothing; but she cut off first her fingers and then
her toes, and made steps of them, and he clomb the tree, and got all
the eggs safe till he came to the bottom, and then one was broken. The
giant's dochter advised him to run away, and she would follow him. So
he travelled till he came to a king's palace, and the king and queen
took him in and were very kind to him. The giant's dochter left her
father's house, and he pursued her and was drowned. Then she came to
the king's palace where Nicht Nought Nothing was. And she went up
into a tree to watch for him. The gardener's dochter, going to draw
water in the well, saw the shadow of the lady in the water, and
thought it was herself, and said, 'If I'm so bonny, if I'm so brave,
do you send me to draw water?' The gardener's wife went out, and she
said the same thing. Then the gardener went himself, and brought the
lady from the tree, and led her in. And he told her that a stranger
was to marry the king's dochter, and showed her the man: and it was
Nicht Nought Nothing asleep in a chair. And she saw him, and cried to
him, 'Waken, waken, and speak to me!' But he would not waken, and
syne she cried,

'I cleaned the stable, I laved the loch, and I clamb the tree,
And all for the love of thee,
And thou wilt not waken and speak to me.'

The king and the queen heard this, and came to the bonny young lady,
and she said,

'I canna get Nicht Nought Nothing to speak to me for all that I can
do.'

Then were they greatly astonished when she spoke of Nicht Nought
Nothing, and asked where he was, and she said, 'He that sits there in
the chair.' Then they ran to him and kissed him and ca