him to a spacious hall,
wherein the giant hoarded his immense treasures. Mignon was at first
dazzled with the lustre of so much gold and silver, and sparkling jewels
as were there heaped together. But casting his eyes on a statue that was
placed in the middle of the room, he read on the pedestal, written in
very small letters, the following verses:

Wouldst thou from the rage be free
Of the tyrant's tyranny,
Loose the fillet which is bound
Twice three times my brows around;
Bolts and bars shall open fly,
By a magic sympathy.
Take him in his sleeping hour;
Bind his neck and break his pow'r.
Patience bids, make no delay:
Haste to bind him, haste away.

Mignon's little heart now leapt for joy, that he had found the means
of such a speedy deliverance; and eagerly climbing up the statue, he
quickly unbound the magic fillet; which was no sooner done, but suddenly
the bolts and bars of the brazen gates through which the giant used to
pass to this his treasury, were all unloosed, and the folding-doors of
their own accord flew open, grating harsh thunder on their massy hinges.
At the same instant, stretched on his iron couch in the room adjoining
to the hall, the giant gave a deadly groan. Here again the little
Mignon's trembling heart began to fail; for he feared the monster was
awakened by the noise, and that he should now suffer the cruellest
torments his wicked malice could invent. Wherefore for a short space he
remained clinging round the statue, till he perceived that all again was
hushed and silent; when, getting down, he gently stole into the giant's
chamber, where he found him still in a profound sleep.

But here, to the great mortification of Miss Jenny's attentive hearers,
the hour of entertaining themselves being at an end, they were obliged
to leave the poor little Mignon in the greatest distress and fright
lest the giant should awake before he could fulfil the commands of
the oracle, and to wait for the remainder of the story till another
opportunity.

In the evening, as soon as school was over, the little company again met
in their arbour, and nothing could be greater than their impatience to
hear the event of Mignon's hazardous undertaking. Miss Dolly Friendly
said that if the poor little creature was destroyed, she should not
sleep that night. But they all joined in entreating Miss Jenny to
proceed; which she did in the following manner:

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