imb up
and hold the top of it. The boy thought that the latter would suit
him best, and he soon got up to the topmost branches and held on to
them. But the giant gave the tree such a blow with his club as to
knock it right out of the ground, sending Ashpot flying across the
meadows into a marsh. Luckily he landed on soft ground, and was none
the worse for his adventure; and they soon managed to get the tree
home, when they set to work to make a fire.

But the wood was green, and would not burn, so the giant began to
blow. At the first puff Ashpot found himself flying up to the ceiling
as if he had been a feather, but he managed to catch hold of a piece of
birch-bark among the rafters, and on reaching the ground again he told
the giant that he had been up to get something to make the fire burn.

The fire was soon burning splendidly, and the giant commenced to brew
the ale, drinking it off as fast as it was made. Ashpot watched him
getting gradually drunk, and heard him mutter to himself, "To-night
I will kill him," so he began to think of a plan to outwit his
master. When he went to bed he placed the giant's cream-whisk between
the sheets as a dummy, while he himself crept under the bedstead.

In the middle of the night, just as he had expected, he heard the
giant come into his room, and then there was a tremendous whack as
the giant brought his club down on to the bed. Next morning the boy
came out of his room as if nothing had happened, and his master was
very much surprised to find him still alive.

"Hullo!" said the giant. "Didn't you feel anything in the night?"

"I did feel something," said Ashpot; "but I thought that it was only
a sausage-peg that had fallen on the bed, so I went to sleep again."

The giant was more astonished than ever, and went off to consult
his sister, who lived in a neighbouring mountain, and was about ten
times his size. At length it was settled that the giantess should
set her cooking-pot on the fire, and that Ashpot should be sent to
see her, when she was to tip him into the caldron and boil him. In
the course of the day the giant sent the boy off with a message to
his sister, and when he reached the giantess's dwelling he found her
busy cooking. But he soon saw through her design, and he took out of
his pocket a nut with a hole in it.

"Look here," he said, showing the nut to the ogress, "you think you
can do everything. I will tell you one thing that you can't do: you
can't make