English Fairy Tales / Английские сказки

’ And she did as the horses told her, and he ate and rested, till by and bye a long shadow fell over them, and their hearts beat with fear, for they knew that the giant was coming.

�I smell a stranger,’ cried the giant, as he entered; but it was dark inside the chasm, and he did not see the king, who was crouching down between the feet of the horses.

�A stranger, my lord! no stranger ever comes here, not even the sun!’ and the king’s wife laughed gaily as she went up to the giant and stroked the huge hand which hung down by his side.

�Well, I perceive nothing, certainly,’ answered he, �but it is very odd. However, it is 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.