-on the grass, and look-ed up-wards to the blue sky,
and watch-ed the flee-cy clouds pur-sue each o-ther a-cross the
bound-less ex-panse of the hea-vens. As he lay, half dream-ing, he
thought he heard some-thing like the roll-ing of thun-der: he lis-ten-ed
with great-er at-ten-tion, un-til he was as-sur-ed there was some cause
in his close vi-ci-ni-ty for the un-u-su-al and cu-ri-ous sounds. He
a-rose, and pro-ceed-ed to-wards the di-rec-tion of the sounds, which
grew loud-er and loud-er as he ad-van-ced; when, com-ing to the edge of
a pre-ci-pice, he be-held a grand and aw-ful rush of foam-ing wa-ters,
which threw them-selves head-long down the riv-en rocks with a
deaf-en-ing roar and tu-mult.

He look-ed from right to left, and his way seem-ed bar-red by this
tre-men-dous ob-sta-cle. His heart fail-ed him as he saw how
im-pos-si-ble it was for him to pro-ceed: in-deed, as he sat him-self
down on the edge of the ca-ta-ract, he could not help weep-ing at his
un-ex-pect-ed di-lem-ma.

He had not been ma-ny mi-nutes in-dul-ging in his grief, when he felt
him-self gent-ly lift-ed from the ground by a gi-gan-tic hand, which
pass-ed him high a-bove the threat-en-ing wa-ters, and pla-ced him in
safe-ty on the op-po-site bank. As the hand put him on his feet, it
be-came in-dis-tinct; but be-fore it had quite van-ish-ed, Wil-lie took
off his hat, and, bow-ing, said,--"Thank you kind-ly, good hand; you
have kept your promise well."

[Illustration: THE OGRESS'S CASTLE.]

Cer-tain now that the fai-ry hands were not a dream, which he had
real-ly be-gun to think them, his cou-rage rose with the con-vic-tion of
the pro-tec-tion which sur-round-ed him from their great pow-er and
good-will to-wards him.

He soon came to a dense wood, where the gi-gan-tic trees, with gnarl-ed
and twist-ed trunks, wound their e-nor-mous limbs a-round each o-ther in
the most fan-tas-tic forms, and the tan-gled un-der-wood twi-ned like
snakes a-cross the path, as if to for-bid any ven-tu-rous foot from
en-ter-ing into the dark green depths. He, how-e-ver, look-ed up-on all
such ob-sta-cles as no-thing in com-pa-ri-son with the last which he had
been en-a-bled to sur-mount with the as-sist-ance of the hands. So he
plun-ged on, strik-ing right and left, to clear his way, with his good
stick. As he was lay-ing a-bout with a right good will, he was brought
to a stand-still by a fe-ro-ci-ous growl. He turn-ed his eyes a-round,
and be-held, much to his dis