now yours from any other? But this
I can tell you: through a window in the castle of the Great Giant,
which stands upon a high hill beside the Silver Sea, I spy a
nightingale in a golden cage which was not there when I shone through
that same window yester eve; and moreover, at the World's End, which
is beyond the Giant's castle, I see a band of goblins counting money."

"A thousand thanks to you, oh moon," cried Pease-Blossom joyfully when
he heard this; for he could put two and two together as well as any
fay in fairyland, and he did not doubt that the goblins had sold the
nightingale to the Great Giant.

"I shall be at the castle before you shine in the dell," he called to
the moon as he flew swift as a humming bird through the air.

But when he reached the hedge of thorns that guarded the palace of a
lovely princess who was next neighbor to the Giant, he tripped against
a candle-fly that was hurrying to an illumination in the palace, and
tumbled headlong into the thorns.

"Help! help!" he cried as he struggled to get free, and a night-hawk
that was out in a search of a supper flew down to see what the matter
was.

"Oh, ho!" said he when he saw who it was. "Fairy folk like to have all
things their way, but 'tis my turn now to have a little fun."

And he plucked Pease-Blossom from out the thorns and flew away with
him in his bill.

Up and down, so high that the trees below looked no taller than corn
stalks, and so low that their branches brushed his wings, he flew,
till Pease-Blossom was faint from dizziness.

"See what a great moth the hawk has in his bill," cried an owl that
they passed.

"'Tis no moth but a bug," said a whip-poor-will.

"Such an enormous gnat should make a meal for two," whispered a
brother hawk, flying close.

"Simpleton! Do you not know a fairy when you see one?" said the
night-hawk who could keep quiet no longer.

But no sooner had he opened his bill to speak his very first word than
out tumbled Pease-Blossom.

The other hawk made haste to catch the fay but before he could reach
him a fine breeze came blowing by.

"Is this not my little playmate, Pease-Blossom, who likes so well to
ride on the grasses and rock in the flowers?" asked the breeze; and it
whisked the little fairy away and bore him along so fast that no bird
could keep up with him.

They were at the Silver Sea in the twinkling of a star, and
Pease-Blossom was just beginning to think that his troubles were
ended,