once; but before you
go take this from me to your little girl."

And the king gave him a brooch lovelier than any on the palace
walls.

The king and the prince, followed by the cats, went down to the
strand, and when the prince stepped into the boat all the cats "mewed"
three times for good luck, and the prince waved his hat three times,
and the little boat sped over the waters all through the night as
brightly and as swiftly as a shooting star. In the first flush of the
morning it touched the strand. The prince jumped out and went on and
on, up hill and down dale, until he came to the giant's castle. When
the hounds saw him they barked furiously, and bounded towards him to
tear him to pieces. The prince flung the cakes to them, and as each
hound swallowed his cake he fell dead. The prince then struck his
shield three times with the sword which he had brought from the palace
of the little white cat.

When the giant heard the sound he cried out: "Who comes to challenge
me on my wedding-day?"

The dwarfs went out to see, and, returning, told him it was a prince
who challenged him to battle.

The giant, foaming with rage, seized his heaviest iron club, and
rushed out to the fight. The fight lasted the whole day, and when the
sun went down the giant said:

"We have had enough of fighting for the day. We can begin at sunrise
to-morrow."

"Not so," said the prince. "Now or never; win or die."

"Then take this," cried the giant, as he aimed a blow with all his
force at the prince's head; but the prince, darting forward like a
flash of lightning, drove his sword into the giant's heart, and, with
a groan, he fell over the bodies of the poisoned hounds.

When the dwarfs saw the giant dead they began to cry and tear their
hair. But the prince told them they had nothing to fear, and he bade
them go and tell the princess Eileen he wished to speak with her. But
the princess had watched the battle from her window, and when she saw
the giant fall she rushed out to greet the prince, and that very night
he and she and all the dwarfs and harpers set out for the Palace of
the Silver River, which they reached the next morning, and from that
day to this there never has been a gayer wedding than the wedding of
the Prince of the Silver River and the Princess Eileen; and though she
had diamonds and pearls to spare, the only jewel she wore on her
wedding-day was the brooch which the prince had brought her from the
Palace of the Lit