Page:Christmas Fireside Stories.djvu/70

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58 The Gi ant who had no Heart. princess ; " but I must try him again." So she picked ali the prettiest flowers she could find and strewed them over the door slab, which they put in its right place again. When the time came for the giant to return home, Ashiepattle crept under the bed, and he had scarcely got well under before the giant came in. " Ugh, what a smell of Christian blood theré is hers," screamed the giant. — " Yes, a magpie flew over the house and dropped a man's bone down the chimney," said the princess ; " I made haste to clear it away, but I suppose the smell hasn't gone away yet." — So the giant said no more about it, but in a little while he asked who it was that had been strewing flowers around the door-slab. " Why, I, of course," said the princess. — " And what's the meaning of it ? " asked the giant. — " Well, you know lam so fond of you," said the princess, " that I couldn't help doing it when I knew that your heart was lying under there." —" Ah, indeed," said the giant, " but it isn't there after all." When they had gone to bed in the evening, the princess asked again where his heart was, because she was so very fond of him, she said, that she would so like to know it. " Oh, it's over in the cupboard on the wall there," said the giant. Ah, ha, thought both Ashiepattle and the princess, wc will soon try to find it. Next morning the giant was early out of bed, and made for the wood again, but the moment he was gone Ashiepattle and the princess were looking in the cupboard for the heart, but they looked and searched and found no heart. " Well, wc must try once more," said the princess. She hilng flowers and garlands around the cupboard, and when the evening came Ashiepattle crept under the bed again. Shortly the giant came in. " Ugh, Ugh ! " he roared, what a smell of Christian blood there is here." —" Yes, a magpie flew past here just now, and dropped a man's bone down the chimney," said the princess ; " I made haste to throw it out, but I suppose that's what you still smell." When the giant heard this, he said no more about it; but as soon as he saw the cupboard decked out with flowers and garlands, he asked who it was that had done that. It was the princess, of course. " But whafs the meaning of all this foolery ? " asked the giant. —" Well, you know