-may, a fierce wolf pre-par-ing to spring
up-on him. He shrank down with ter-ror as he look-ed up-on the white
teeth and fi-e-ry eyes of the sa-vage brute, and gave him-self up for
lost, when, to his joy, one of the great hands e-mer-ged from a-midst
the thick fo-li-age of a tree, and pla-ced it-self be-tween him and his
en-e-my; at the same time the o-ther hand seiz-ed the wolf, and crush-ed
it in its grasp.

Wil-lie fell on his knees, and re-turn-ed thanks for his de-li-ver-ance;
then, look-ing round for the hands, he found they had va-nish-ed.

[Illustration: THE KITCHEN OF THE OGRESS.]

Wea-ri-ed with his jour-ney, he sat down un-der a tree, de-ter-min-ed to
rest for the night; and pull-ing out his wal-let, pre-par-ed to re-fresh
him-self with part of its con-tents, for he had scarce-ly eat-en any all
day, so com-plete-ly had he been ta-ken up by the won-der-ful
ap-pear-ance of the good hands.

Af-ter fi-nish-ing his meal, which he did with ex-ceed-ing rel-ish, he
be-gan to turn o-ver in his mind how he was to make up his bed in his
ve-ry large bed-cham-ber, for it ap-pear-ed as if he had got the great
fo-rest all to him-self. When he had col-lect-ed a suf-fi-ci-en-cy of
dri-ed leaves to-ge-ther to make his rest-ing place soft-er, he
pre-par-ed to lie down, when, to his as-to-nish-ment and de-light, he
be-held the gi-gan-tic hands spread them-selves over him, with the
fin-gers en-twin-ed, ma-king for him the most per-fect lit-tle tent in
the world. How his heart bound-ed with gra-ti-tude to-wards the good
fai-ry hands, as he felt how safe-ly he might in-dulge in his slum-bers
be-neath such pro-tec-tion!

"Thank you a-gain, good hands," said he, "for your kind care of me; but
be-fore I say my pray-ers, can-not you, since you are so pow-er-ful,
tell me some-thing of my dear mo-ther--whe-ther she is more con-so-led,
and whe-ther she has food to eat?"

"Good Wil-lie," re-plied a voice, "your mo-ther knows that you will be
pro-tect-ed, as all good chil-dren are; and she has food, for she is
in-dus-tri-ous; her hands were giv-en to her from my king-dom, in which
no i-dle hands are ever made, as you shall know from me here-af-ter.
Sleep, then, in peace, that you may rise pre-pa-red for la-bour on the
com-ing morn." So Wil-lie slept.

[Illustration: THE DEATH OF THE OGRESS.]

Wil-lie was ear-ly a-foot; for the day, ac-cord-ing to the hands, was to
be a day of la-bour, with its fruits. He soon left the wood be-hind