him,
and saw a large cas-tle before him.

"Here, sure-ly, is some-thing to be done," thought he; so he leapt up
the steps, and tri-ed to raise the knock-er, but it was too hea-vy for
his pu-ny strength. In an in-stant the hands ap-pear-ed, and knock-ed
such a dou-ble knock, that it e-cho-ed like thun-der through the
val-ley, and you might have heard it rum-bling a-way on the dis-tant
moun-tains.

The door o-pen-ed with a sud-den jerk, and the mis-tress of the man-sion
ap-pear-ed. The mo-ment Wil-lie saw her, he back-ed down the steps, for
she was an o-gress, and as ug-ly as o-gress-es ge-ne-ral-ly are. She
gla-red up-on the lit-tle-man who she sup-po-sed had giv-en that great
knock, with sur-prise and as-to-nish-ment; and then, in a voice like a
ve-ry hoarse ra-ven, she cri-ed--

"How dar-ed you to knock like that at my door, you lit-tle var-let? You
have put me all in a twit-ter."

Wil-lie trem-bling-ly took off his hat, and re-pli-ed in an hum-ble
voice, "If you please, prin-cess, I wish-ed to know whe-ther you want-ed
a ser-vant to as-sist in your mag-ni-fi-cent cas-tle."

"A ser-vant, brat!" said she; "what can you do?"

"Any-thing to please your high-ness, for I want to work."

"Oh, oh! do you? Then, come in, for my ser-vants have all left me
be-cause I don't put my work out," said she.

[Illustration: THE RESCUE.]

With that, Wil-lie en-ter-ed, and soon found that he had plen-ty to do;
for his first job was to get the o-gress's din-ner ready, who, in truth,
had no de-li-cate ap-pe-tite, for the pro-vi-si-on con-sist-ed of fish,
fowl, beef, soup, mut-ton, and ham-pers of ve-ge-ta-bles.

He sigh-ed as he look-ed up-on such a-bun-dance, which would have di-ned
sump-tu-ous-ly his own na-tive vil-lage. A-gain he sigh-ed: as he did
so, the gi-ant hands ap-pear-ed. If you could on-ly have seen them truss
this, skew-er that, boil the o-ther, turn out the sau-ces, pick the
pic-kles, cut the bread, and put the dish-es to the fire, you would have
been as-to-nish-ed, Wil-lie all the time do-ing all he knew to aid in
the work.

The o-gress di-ned, and smi-led up-on her trea-sure of a ser-vant.

Self-in-dul-gent people are al-ways un-grate-ful; and so the o-gress
pro-ved, for she was con-ti-nu-al-ly de-si-ring more and more at the
hands of poor Wil-lie, un-til he had no rest: and, one day, when she had
been more im-po-sing than u-su-al, he turn-ed round, and told her that
she left him hard-ly time to sleep, and t