rd, and what wages would he get. The gentleman said he had three
goats, three cows, three horses, and three asses that he fed in an
orchard, but that no boy who went with them ever came back alive, for
there were three giants, brothers, that came to milk the cows and the
goats every day, and killed the boy that was herding; so if Billy
liked to try, they wouldn't fix the wages till they'd see if he would
come back alive.

"Agreed, then," said Billy. So the next morning he got up and drove
out the three goats, the three cows, the three horses, and the three
asses to the orchard and commenced to feed them. About the middle of
the day Billy heard three terrible roars that shook the apples off the
bushes, shook the horns on the cows, and made the hair stand up on
Billy's head, and in comes a frightful big giant with three heads, and
begun to threaten Bill. "You're too big," says the giant, "for one
bite, and too small for two. What will I do with you?" "I'll fight
you," says Billy, says he, stepping out to him and swinging the bit of
stick three times over his head, when it changed into a sword and gave
him the strength of a thousand men besides his own. The giant laughed
at the size of him, and says he, "Well, how will I kill you? Will it
be by a swing by the back, a cut of the sword, or a square round of
boxing?" "With a swing by the back," says Billy, "if you can." So they
both laid holds, and Billy lifted the giant clean off the ground, and
fetching him down again sunk him in the earth up to his arm-pits. "Oh,
have mercy!" says the giant. But Billy, taking his sword, killed the
giant, and cut out his tongues. It was evening by this time, so Billy
drove home the three goats, three cows, three horses, and three asses,
and all the vessels in the house wasn't able to hold all the milk the
cows give that night.

"Well," says the gentleman, "this beats me, for I never saw any one
coming back alive out of there before, nor the cows with a drop of
milk. Did you see anything in the orchard?" says he. "Nothing worse
nor myself," says Billy. "What about my wages, now?" says Billy.
"Well," says the gentleman, "you'll hardly come alive out of the
orchard the morrow. So we'll wait till after that." Next morning his
master told Billy that something must have happened to one of the
giants, for he used to hear cries of three every night, but last night
he only heard two crying. "I don't know," said Billy, "anything about
them." That m