Only in the garden of the Selfish
Giant it was still winter.
How are you, my good fellow?" And when the small distant squeak of their voices reached his ear, the
Giant would make answer, "Pretty well, brother Pygmy, I thank you," in a thunderous roar that would have shaken down the walls of their strongest temple, only that it came from so far aloft.
'Then hold on to me,' said the
Giant, 'so that I may lead you up above again.' So the Herd-boy held on to the
Giant, and in a few moments he found himself on the earth once more, but the
Giant had vanished.
'You can certainly throw,' said the
giant, 'but now we will see if you are able to carry anything properly.' He took the little tailor to a mighty oak tree which lay there felled on the ground, and said: 'If you are strong enough, help me to carry the tree out of the forest.'
With this the
Giant pushed his big arms, which looked like tree-trunks (except that tree- trunks don't wear pink velvet) between the iron bars, and the arms were so long that they touched the opposite wall of the rock passage.
At sunset the
giant returned, supped upon one of our unhappy comrades, slept and snored till dawn, and then left us as before.
Then, before anyone thought he was ready, he made a sudden leap straight between the iron
giant's legs, and before the mallet struck the ground again the Lion and Ozma were safe on the other side.
As the
Giant struck at him, the Knight leapt aside and the blow fell harmless.
'Once get a
giant shaky on his legs, and the public care no more about him than they do for a dead cabbage stalk.'
"Oh!" replied the
giant, making an effort that contorted every muscle of his body - "oh!
His stick had rested a moment while he looked to see the
giant topple into the water, when down came the other upon his head, whack!
Although battling for his life, Sing had not failed to note the advent of the strange young
giant, nor the part he had played in succoring the professor, so that it was with a feeling of relief that he saw the newcomer turn his attention toward those who were rapidly reducing the citadel of his own existence.