time that the horses were fed;' and he lifted down
an armful of hay from a shelf of rock and held out a handful to each
animal, who moved forward to meet him, leaving the king behind. As soon
as the giant's hands were near their mouths they each made a snap, and
began to bit them, so that his groans and shrieks might have been heard
a mile off. Then they wheeled round and kicked him till they could
kick no more. At length the giant crawled away, and lay quivering in a
corner, and the queen went up to him.

'Poor thing! poor thing!' she said, 'they seem to have gone mad; it was
awful to behold.'

'If I had had my soul in my body they would certainly have killed me,'
groaned the giant.

'It was lucky indeed,' answered the queen; 'but tell me, where is thy
soul, that I may take care of it?'

'Up there, in the Bonnach stone,' answered the giant, pointing to a
stone which was balanced loosely on an edge of rock. 'But now leave me,
that I may sleep, for I have far to go to-morrow.'

Soon snores were heard from the corner where the giant lay, and then
the queen lay down too, and the horses, and the king was hidden between
them, so that none could see him.

Before the dawn the giant rose and went out, and immediately the queen
ran up to the Bonnach stone, and tugged and pushed at it till it was
quite steady on its ledge, and could not fall over. And so it was in the
evening when the giant came home; and when they saw his shadow, the king
crept down in front of the horses.

'Why, what have you done to the Bonnach stone?' asked the giant.

'I feared lest it should fall over, and be broken, with your soul in
it,' said the queen, 'so I put it further back on the ledge.'

'It is not there that my soul is,' answered he, 'it is on the threshold.
But it is time the horses were fed;' and he fetched the hay, and gave it
to them, and they bit and kicked him as before, till he lay half dead on
the ground.

Next morning he rose and went out, and the queen ran to the threshold
of the cave, and washed the stones, and pulled up some moss and little
flowers that were hidden in the crannies, and by and bye when dusk had
fallen the giant came home.

'You have been cleaning the threshold,' said he.

'And was I not right to do it, seeing that your soul is in it?' asked
the queen.

'It is not there that my soul is,' answered the giant. 'Under the
threshold is a stone, and under the stone is a sheep, and in the sheep's
body is a duc