r's boy, and wept and wailed when the giant, fine and satisfied,
carried his prize off on his back. Then the same thing happened. The
giant grew weary of his burden, and sate down on the big stone to rest.
So he fell a-dozing, woke with a start, and called out:

"Hodge, Hodge, on my shoulders! Say
What d'ye make the time o' day?"

And the gardener's boy replied:

"Time that my father the gardener took
Greens for the wise Queen's dinner to cook!"

So the giant saw at once that a second trick had been played on him and
became quite mad with rage. He flung the boy from him so that he was
killed, and then strode back to the palace, where he cried with fury:
"Give me what you promised to give, Nix Naught Nothing, or I will
destroy you all, root and branch."

So then they saw they must give up the dear little Prince, and this time
they really wept and wailed as the giant carried off the boy on his
back. And this time, after the giant had had his rest at the big stone,
and had woke up and called:

"Hodge, Hodge, on my shoulders! Say
What d'ye make the time o' day?"

the little Prince replied:

"Time for the King my father to call,
'Let supper be served in the banqueting hall.'"

Then the giant laughed with glee and rubbed his hands saying, "I've got
the right one at last." So he took Nix Naught Nothing to his own house
under the whirlpools; for the giant was really a great Magician who
could take any form he chose. And the reason he wanted a little prince
so badly was that he had lost his wife, and had only one little daughter
who needed a playmate sorely. So Nix Naught Nothing and the Magician's
daughter grew up together, and every year made them fonder and fonder of
each other, until she promised to marry him.

Now the Magician had no notion that his daughter should marry just an
ordinary human prince, the like of whom he had eaten a thousand times,
so he sought some way in which he could quietly get rid of Nix Naught
Nothing. So he said one day, "I have work for you, Nix Naught Nothing!
There is a stable hard by which is seven miles long, and seven miles
broad, and it has not been cleaned for seven years. By to-morrow evening
you must have cleaned it, or I will have you for my supper."

Well, before dawn, Nix Naught Nothing set to work at his task; but, as
fast as he cleared the muck, it just fell back again. So by
breakfast-time he was in a terrible sweat; yet not one whit nearer the
end o