is youth, boil him in the large cauldron, and when
the broth is ready, call me."

Then, just as if he had said nothing more startling than "Prepare some
cauliflower for dinner," he lay down on the bench and fell so fast
asleep that his snores sounded like thunder.

[Illustration: "KILL THIS YOUTH. BOIL HIM IN THE LARGE CAULDRON," SAID
THE GIANT]

Immediately the maiden began to make her preparations very neatly and
quickly. First, with a little knife she made a small gash in the
Prince's little finger and dropped three drops of his blood on the
wooden stool, near the cauldron. Then she gathered up a lot of rubbish,
such as old shoes and rags, and put them in the cauldron with water and
pepper and salt. Last of all, she packed a small chest with gold, and
gave it to the Prince to carry; filled a water-flask; took a golden cock
and hen, and put a lump of salt and a golden apple in her pocket. Then
the maid and the Prince ran to the sea-shore as fast as they could,
climbed on board a little ship that had come from no-one-knows-where,
and sailed away.

After a while the Giant roused a little, and said sleepily: "Will it
soon boil?"

The first drop of blood answered quietly: "It is just beginning." And
the Giant went to sleep again.

At the end of a few hours more he roused again and asked: "Will it soon
be ready?"

And the second drop said: "Half done," in the maiden's mournful voice,
for she had seen so many dark deeds done that, until the Prince came,
she was always sad.

Again the Giant went to sleep, for several hours; but then he became
quite awake, and asked: "Is it not done yet?"

The third drop said: "Quite ready." And the Giant sat up, and looked
around. The maiden was nowhere to be seen, but the Giant went over to
the pot and tasted the soup.

At once he knew what had happened, and in a furious rage rushed to the
sea, but he could not get over it. So he called up his water-sucker, who
lay down and drank two or three draughts; and the water fell so low that
the horizon dropped, and the Giant could see the maiden and the Prince a
long way off.

But the Master-Maid told the Prince to throw the lump of salt into the
sea, and as soon as he did so it became such a high mountain that the
Giant could not cross it, and the water-sucker could not gather up any
more water.

Then the Giant called his hill-borer, who bored a tunnel through the
mountain, so that the sucker could go through and drink up more w