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 stupid, 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, with which the
giant used to beat his cream, between the sheets as a dummy, while
Ashpot himself crept under the bedstead, where he was safely hidden.

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 neighboring 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 yourself so small as to be able to creep into the hole in this
nut."

"Rubbish!" replied the giantess. "Of course I can!"

And in a moment she became as small as a fly, and crept into the nut,
whereupon Ashpot hurled it into the fire, and that was the end of the
giantess.

The boy was so delighted that he returned to his old tyrant the giant
and told him what had happened to his sister. This set the big man
thinking again as to how he was to rid himself of this sharp-witted
little nuisance. He did not understand boys, and he was afraid of
Ashpot's tricks, so he offered him as much gold and silver