nd was
greatly rejoiced thereby. His Giant's Shakes ceased, the props were
removed from the throne, and the Princess Ariadne Diana was allowed to
go out without her body-guard of fifty knights, much to her delight,
for she found them a great hindrance to the enjoyment of her daily
outings.

It was a great cross, not to say an embarrassment, when she was
gleefully rolling in pursuit of a charming red and gold butterfly, to
find herself suddenly stopped short by an armed knight with his lance
in rest.

But the King, though his gratitude for the noble deed knew no bounds,
omitted to give the promised reward and knight Patroclus.

I hardly know how it happened--I don't think it was anything
intentional. Patroclus felt rather hurt about it, and Daphne would
have liked to be a lady, but AEneas did not care in the least. He had
the Giant's head to play with and that was reward enough for him.
There was not a boy in the neighborhood but envied him his possession
of such a unique plaything; and when they would stand looking over the
wall of the potato-field with longing eyes, and he was flying over the
ground with the head, his happiness knew no bounds; and AEneas played
so much with the Giant's head that finally late in the fall it got
broken and scattered all over the field.

[Illustration: THEY WERE ALL OVER THE FIELD.]

Next spring all over Patroclus's potato-field grew running vines,
and in the fall Giant's heads. There they were all over the field,
hundreds of them! Then there was consternation indeed! The natural
conclusion to be arrived at when the people saw the yellow Giant's
heads making their appearance above the ground was, that the rest of
the Giants were coming.

"There was one Pumpkin Giant before," said they, "now there will be
a whole army of them. If it was dreadful then what will it be in the
future? If one Pumpkin Giant gave us the Shakes so badly, what will a
whole army of them do?"

But when some time had elapsed and nothing more of the Giants appeared
above the surface of the potato-field, and as moreover the heads had
not yet displayed any sign of opening their mouths, the people began
to feel a little easier, and the general excitement subsided somewhat,
although the King had ordered out Ariadne Diana's body-guard again.

Now AEneas had been born with a propensity for putting everything into
his mouth and tasting it; there was scarcely anything in his vicinity
which could by any possibility b