l go and get the
water."

After having hung up the kettle, the giant put into it an ox cut into
pieces, fifty cabbages, and a wagon-load of carrots. He then skimmed the
broth with a frying-pan, tasting it every now and then, to see if it was
done. When all was ready, he turned to Thumbling, and said:--

"Now to the table. We'll see if you can do what I can there. I feel like
eating the whole ox, and you into the bargain. I think I will serve you
for dessert."

"All right," said Thumbling; but before sitting down to the table, he
slipped under his jacket his stout leather bag, which reached down to
his feet.

The two champions now set to work. The Troll ate and ate, and Thumbling
wasn't idle; only he pitched everything, beef, cabbage, carrots, and
all, into his bag, when the giant wasn't looking.

"Ouf!" at last grunted the Troll; "I can't do much more; I have got to
unbutton the lower button of my waistcoat."

"Eat away, starveling!" cried Thumbling, sticking the half of a cabbage
into his bag.

"Ouf!" groaned the giant; "I have got to unbutton another button. But
what sort of an ostrich's stomach have you got, my son? I should think
you were used to eating stones!"

"Eat away, lazy-bones!" said Thumbling, sticking a huge junk of beef
into his bag.

"Ouf!" sighed the giant, for the third time; "I have got to unbutton the
third button. I am almost suffocated; and how is it with you, sorcerer?"

"Bah!" answered Thumbling; "it is the easiest thing in the world to
relieve yourself; and so saying he took his knife, and slit his jacket
and the bag under it the whole length of his stomach.

"It is your turn now," he said to the giant; "do as I do, you know, _if
you can_."

"Your humble servant," replied the Troll; "pray excuse me! I had rather
be your servant than do that; _my_ stomach don't digest steel!"

No sooner said than done; the giant kissed Thumbling's hand in token of
submission, and taking his little master on one shoulder, and a huge bag
of gold on the other, he started off for the king's palace.

V.

They were having a great feast at the palace, and thinking no more of
Thumbling than if the giant had eaten him up a week before; when, all of
a sudden, they heard a terrible noise that shook the palace to its very
foundations. It was the Troll, who, finding the great gateway too low
for him to enter, had overturned it with a single kick of his foot.
Everybody ran to the windows, the king among t