apparition, and, fearful lest he should slay them, they all took to
their heels as fast as they could.

The little tailor continued to follow his nose, and after he had
wandered about for a long time he came to the courtyard of a royal
palace, and feeling tired he lay down on the grass and fell asleep.
While he lay there the people came, and looking him all over read on his
girdle: "Seven at a blow." "Oh!" they said, "what can this great hero of
a hundred fights want in our peaceful land? He must indeed be a mighty
man of valor." They went and told the King about him, and said what a
weighty and useful man he'd be in time of war, and that it would be well
to secure him at any price. This counsel pleased the King, and he sent
one of his courtiers down to the little tailor, to offer him, when he
awoke, a commission in their army. The messenger remained standing by
the sleeper, and waited till he stretched his limbs and opened his eyes,
when he tendered his proposal. "That's the very thing I came here for,"
he answered; "I am quite ready to enter the King's service." So he was
received with all honor, and given a special house of his own to live
in.

But the other officers resented the success of the little tailor, and
wished him a thousand miles away. "What's to come of it all?" they asked
each other; "if we quarrel with him, he'll let out at us, and at every
blow seven will fall. There'll soon be an end of us." So they resolved
to go in a body to the King, and all to send in their papers. "We are
not made," they said, "to hold out against a man who kills seven at a
blow." The King was grieved at the thought of losing all his faithful
servants for the sake of one man, and he wished heartily that he had
never set eyes on him, or that he could get rid of him. But he didn't
dare to send him away, for he feared he might kill him along with his
people, and place himself on the throne. He pondered long and deeply
over the matter, and finally came to a conclusion. He sent to the tailor
and told him that, seeing what a great and warlike hero he was, he
was about to make him an offer. In a certain wood of his kingdom there
dwelled two giants who did much harm; by the way they robbed, murdered,
burned, and plundered everything about them; "no one could approach them
without endangering his life. But if he could overcome and kill these
two giants he should have his only daughter for a wife, and half his
kingdom into the bargain; h