r they knew that giants could do them no harm;
but it was different with the tailors and fishermen and ploughmen. They
had suffered so much that they could not speak of a giant without
bitterness.

"But aren't there good giants?" asked Miss Muffet.

"I never heard of one," said the tailor, "except Christopher, and he is
a saint and learned how to fast. It isn't a question of their being
good: the trouble with them is that they are too big. It takes too much
to support them. They eat us out of house and home. We can't get along
peaceably till we are all more of a size."

They were all of that opinion, and the stories which they applauded were
of the kind where a little man gets the better of a big one. Miss Muffet
could not object to this, because it was the kind she liked best
herself.

"I never have been so much afraid of giants," she said, "since I learned
about their diseases. They are not nearly so strong as they look. There
was Giant Despair,--'in sunshiny weather he fell into fits.' It was
while he was having a fit, you know, that Christian and Hopeful got
away. If I were going where there were bad giants, I should go in
sunshiny weather."

"I don't think you would have any trouble, my dear," said the shoemaker,
"for you would take the sunshine with you."

And then he laughed to think of Giant Despair tumbling over in a fit
when he caught sight of Miss Muffet. For though the shoemaker was a very
kind man, he had no sympathy for giants.

[Illustration: Chapter VI]

There were so many interesting things going on at the party that Miss
Muffet almost forgot the Serious Symposium. When she did remember it,
she was very much troubled.

"What will Rollo think about me for being so negligent! I invited him
particularly to come to a symposium, and now I don't even know how it is
done."

[Illustration: "_I am sorry to be so late_"]

The spider, however, told her that he had secured a hall up two flights,
and had arranged the chairs and a table, which were all the arrangements
necessary for a meeting. He had seen a number of serious persons going
upstairs, and he had no doubt that it was a success.

When she reached the hall, the papers had all been read and discussed,
and the Little Old Woman, who was in the chair, was just announcing that
the next business before the house was to adjourn.

"I am sorry to be so late," said Miss Muffet, "and to miss hearing the
papers."

"If that's the case," said