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diff --git a/old/60475-0.txt b/old/60475-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d55fa0f..0000000 --- a/old/60475-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2651 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Peggy's Giant, by M. D. Hillyard - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Peggy's Giant - -Author: M. D. Hillyard - -Illustrator: Peggy - -Release Date: October 12, 2019 [EBook #60475] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY'S GIANT *** - - - - -Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David E. Brown, and the -Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - -[Illustration: This is Peggy’s own drawing of what happened in the -first Adventure of the Ring. Everyone is very frightened in it. Nurse -has just sat down on seeing the Giant, and has dropped Peggy’s brown -holland frock behind her. - -Peggy drew the frock very carefully, spreading it out flat on the floor -to get it exactly right. Mother helped her with the Giant’s knee, and -with the table. All the rest she did herself. She knows Nurse is too -small, but she was too busy getting her surprised enough to remember to -make her bigger. Peggy is behind the Giant wondering what to say. The -little round things near the Giant’s foot are the broken bits of the -cup and saucer, and the black dots are the currants in the cake. The -curls in the Giant’s beard were the most fun to do.] - - - - - PEGGY’S GIANT - - BY - M. D. HILLYARD - - WITH SEVEN FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR - DRAWN BY PEGGY - - [Illustration] - - A. & C. BLACK, LTD. - 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.1 - 1920 - - - - - TO - PEGGY - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAP. PAGE - - I. WHAT PEGGY FOUND 5 - - II. DISAPPEARING 9 - - III. A DAISY FIELD 15 - - IV. THE SLEEPY GIANT 19 - - V. SWEETS AND FAIRIES 22 - - VI. FE-FO-FUM! 28 - - VII. PEGGY DRIVES A CAR 35 - - VIII. THE MAYOR’S OUTING 39 - - IX. DOWN! 43 - - X. PIXIE GAMES 49 - - XI. THE LAST ADVENTURE 54 - - XII. THE NICEST WISH OF ALL 60 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR - -BY PEGGY - - - WHAT HAPPENED IN THE FIRST ADVENTURE OF THE RING _Frontispiece_ - - THE SECOND ADVENTURE _Facing page_ 20 - - WHAT THE DRAGON LOOKED LIKE WHEN NURSE SAID “YOU - WOULDN’T DARE!” ” 32 - - PEGGY JUST TELLING THE MAYOR THAT THEY’VE STUCK ” 40 - - PEGGY AND THE GIANT GOING DOWN ” 46 - - THE GIANT AND PEGGY AMONG THE PIXIES ” 50 - - RIDING THROUGH THE VILLAGE IN THE SIXTH ADVENTURE ” 60 - - - - -PEGGY’S GIANT - - - - -CHAPTER I - -WHAT PEGGY FOUND - - -“It rattles!” said Peggy, shaking the last cracker, and looking up at -Nurse. - -“Well, pull it now, there’s a dear,” said Nurse, “and let me clear up -this litter.” - -Peggy had just finished her birthday tea up in the nursery alone with -Nurse, as Mother was away. Of course it hadn’t been nearly so exciting -as her last birthday tea--the only one she could remember--which had -been downstairs with lots of other little girls and boys, who had all -come to see Peggy. They hadn’t talked to her or to each other much, -but had eaten lots of birthday cake, and Peggy had been taken up to -bed before the last of them left, because she had had such a long and -exciting birthday. - -This year the only children who could come had suddenly started -whooping-cough, and so there was no party at all. Still it was better -than the usual dull nursery tea, for Mother had left a lot of crackers -with Nurse for Peggy; and Cook had remembered to put six new candles -on the new sponge cake, and they had all been lighted, and were doing -their very best to look brighter than the sunshine pouring in through -the nursery windows. - -“Do guess what’s inside first, Nannie,” said Peggy, shaking the cracker -again. “_I_ guess it’s a little tiny cup and saucer for my doll’s -house. Now, _you_ guess.” - -“Oh, _I_ don’t know--a whistle,” said Nannie, beginning to clear up -the pieces of brightly-coloured paper that covered the table-cloth and -floor, and that really looked a great deal too pretty to burn. “That’s -generally what it is. But what’s the good of guessing when you’ll know -in a minute? Come along and pull, I’m waiting.” - -Peggy shut her eyes, and putting one hand over her ear--she was always -uncomfortably startled by the bang--pulled hard with the other. - -The thing inside immediately flew through the air, and rolled away -under the toy cupboard. And Peggy followed as far as she could, lying -flat on the floor and peering under. Then--“O Nannie, it sparkles!” she -cried excitedly. “I do believe it’s a _beautiful_ ring! I can see it -quite plainly. Yes, it _is_. It’s a gold ring with a great big green -stone in it! There, I’ve got it! O Nannie, look how it sparkles!” - -“A bit of tin and glass,” said Nurse examining it and dropping it on -the table. “What they want to put such rubbish in for passes _my_ -understanding! You can’t play with it, and it’ll only get left about. -Now come and look at the paper blazing,” and she swept all the ends of -the crackers into the fire. - -Peggy was terrified that her ring would follow too, and she began in a -great hurry to put it on all her fingers in turn to see which it would -fit. - -“It won’t fit any of them except my fum,” she remarked. “But just look -how _well_ it fits my fum!” and she waved her left hand to and fro -proudly. - -“You can’t wear a ring at _your_ age,” said Nurse decidedly, “and no -one ever wears them on their thumbs, as you very well know. Oh dear, -your hair ribbon’s coming right off, as usual! Come here whilst I tie -it on again.” - -“Just look how it sparkles!” repeated Peggy, stroking the green stone -admiringly. And it certainly did. A bright green light spread from it -all over that part of the nursery, just like the light in a beech wood -in spring, when the sun is shining through the leaves; and it coloured -and played over Nurse’s face and the cupboard and the roses on the -wall-paper. “_Do_ look, Nannie,” cried the child, “now the fireplace is -green!” - -“Very pretty,” said Nurse absentmindedly, not looking up as she brushed -Peggy’s curls. “What a tangle your hair’s in, to be sure! Now I think -I’ll take off this clean frock and put on your brown holland so that -you can have a good game with all your toys out at once, as it’s your -birthday.” - -“Aren’t you going to play with me, too?” asked Peggy rather wistfully. - -“I can’t,” said Nurse. “I’ve some letters to write, and post goes in -half an hour--when it’ll be your bedtime. Grown-ups can’t spend _all_ -their time playing with little girls, you know. Here, slip your frock -off and stay by the fire, whilst I fetch in your other,” and she -bustled off into the night-nursery. - -“I wish I was grown up,” said Peggy, twirling the ring round and round -her thumb and staring into the fire. “Then I should drink strong tea, -and eat birthday cake downstairs every day if I liked, and wear grand -hats with fevvers in them!” - -“I’m ready whenever you are,” said a voice behind her. - -Peggy turned round quickly, and then nearly jumped out of her skin with -astonishment. - -For behind her, on the other side of the table, stood a Giant! - -Peggy knew in a moment that he _was_ a real Giant, because he was the -living image of the one on page 375 of the Blue Fairy Book, but instead -of looking cross like that one does, he had a nice wide smile, and the -kindest round twinkly blue eyes Peggy had ever seen. He was dressed all -in brown, with bright scarlet stockings, his hair was thick and long, -and so was his beard, and the nursery was so much too low for him that -he had to bend nearly double, his great shoulders sending a cloud of -plaster off the ceiling every time he moved. In one huge hand he held a -cup of very black-looking tea, and in the other a bit of birthday cake -with sugar on it and almond paste and little silver beads. - -“You _are_ a tall kind!” gasped Peggy, staring up at him. “I--I don’t -think Nannie will be at all pleased!” and she glanced fearfully through -the half-open door into the night-nursery. - -“I know, that’s why I spoke,” said the Giant, sitting down on the -floor and stretching himself--one foot went right out of the window -in the process, and the other up the chimney, but he looked much more -comfortable. The cup of tea and the cake he put carefully down by his -side. “You rubbed the ring and wished, you know. How do you like your -dress?” - -Peggy looked down at herself and discovered she was wearing a striped -white and yellow silk gown falling in heavy folds to the ground, and -very high-waisted. On her arm was hanging, by its ribbon, a large white -poke-bonnet, wreathed entirely around with a curling yellow feather. - -“What _are_ these things?” she asked in bewilderment. - -“Why, you wished to be grown up, didn’t you?” said the Giant. “And you -_are_. Or, at least, that’s the best I can do for you. But I’m a bit -out of practice I know,” and he gazed with a rather disheartened air at -the bonnet. - -“I don’t know what Nannie will say,” said Peggy uneasily. (She hadn’t -the heart to tell the Giant that he hadn’t made her in the least the -kind of grown-up she wanted to be.) “She _never_ likes me dressing up!” - -“Well then, wish about it,” said the Giant. “Say, ‘I wish Nurse to stay -away half an hour.’ Hurry up, she’s coming.” - -“I wish Nurse to stay away half an hour,” said Peggy obediently. “But -what’s the good of that?” she added. “Here she is,” and so she was. - -She came through the door hurriedly, with the frock in her hand, and -when she saw the Giant she jumped right up high into the air, and then -she sat down on the floor with a flop. - -“_Who_ is this, Miss Peggy?” she asked in an awful voice. - -“Dear me!” said the Giant, struggling to his feet and knocking over -the Rocking-Horse and three chairs in his hurry. “What _can_ have gone -wrong? The spells don’t work as they used to!” He looked at Nurse -nervously; then--“You must stick to me,” he whispered hoarsely to -Peggy, stepping back on the cup and saucer and grinding them to powder -with his heel. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -DISAPPEARING - - -“He’s--he’s a friend of mine!” said Peggy bravely. She suddenly felt -very sorry for the Giant, for though he was so extremely big he seemed -somehow now just like a helpless baby. “He’s come to tea, Nannie, -because it’s my birfday.” (Peggy still talked baby language when she -got excited.) “And he’s brought a lovely bit of cake like you said -people had before the War,” she went on, pressing the ring tightly, and -wondering when Nurse _would_ speak. But the unfortunate woman continued -to sit on the floor, glaring wildly at the Giant, and opening and -shutting her mouth without a sound coming out of it. - -“Oh dear, _I wish_ something would happen,” at last came from Peggy -desperately. - -No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she felt the Giant tuck -her under his arm and walk straight out of the window with her! - -They went right over the garden and fields, the Giant striding along -through the air with the greatest ease, and at such a pace that often -the birds they met had no time to fly out of their way, and flew full -tilt against them. - -“Phew! that _was_ a narrow shave!” said the Giant, stepping down at -last into the middle of a great wood. He put Peggy down on some soft -green moss, and leant against an oak tree, panting. “And after all, we -left the tea and cake behind!” he added. - -Peggy looked up at him. His head was right up above the branches, but -she could see his long brown beard among the twigs. - -“You squashed them both with your foot,” she said plaintively. “And I -don’t understand _anyfing_! Why did you come at all? Though I like you -very much,” she continued quickly. And indeed she had, from the very -first moment. For he had such a kind face--though it was not what you -would call a clever one exactly--and he was so different from every one -else, and looked as though he would play games nicely. - -“I came because you wished,” said the Giant. “That’s a Fairy Ring, -that is. But it’s not once in a hundred years any children find it--or, -when they do, think of putting it on their thumb and wishing. By the -way, where was it this time?” - -“In a cracker,” said Peggy. - -“Ah, I know those crackers,” said the Giant. “One Fairy one to ten -million common ones is the average. Let me congratulate you! You’ll be -allowed six visits from me, and six wishes each time, before the Ring -disappears again. Very liberal, I call it.” - -“Do you mean you can let me have everything I wish for, like what -happens in the Fairy stories?” asked Peggy in a state of great -excitement, and she began to jump about in a very un-grown-up way. “Oh, -I wish--I wish this tree was made of chocolate!” she screamed. (You -must remember she was rather over-excited, as it was her birthday.) - -The Giant immediately handed her down a chocolate cream from one of the -boughs; and Peggy noticed a bright shade of brown creeping all over the -trunk and branches. - -“Wish number three gone,” said the Giant with a sigh of relief. “Thank -goodness, _that_ wasn’t difficult. But I’m sorry to tell you I’ve -grown rusty, very rusty indeed! It’s so many years since I’ve had -anything of this sort to do, that I’ve forgotten how to manage the -simplest things.” He sighed deeply till the branches clashed together -over Peggy’s head. “I can see by your eye,” he went on gloomily, “that -there’s something not quite up to date enough about your dress. And -you must have noticed in the nursery that I’d quite forgotten how to -disappear quickly. I shall lose my nerve at this rate, I know I shall!” -and a large tear dropped at Peggy’s feet. - -“Oh, no, you won’t!” said Peggy, putting her arms as far round one of -his ankles as they would go, and hugging it. (The chocolate cream had -been delicious, and she was in very good spirits.) “I’d have hated you -to disappear without me just now! Nannie would have been angry _anyhow_ -at my dress--and you managed beautifully after! But you shall practise -disappearing now if you want to. We’ve lots of time, haven’t we? Go on. -Try.” - -So the Giant tried and tried--and then he rested--and then he tried and -tried again, but it wasn’t the slightest good; he remained just as big -and brown and _there_ as ever. At last, with a stupendous effort, he -almost succeeded, though he still showed a bit where the sun shone down -against the trunk, whilst one of his huge boots remained quite visible, -standing forlornly on the grass beside Peggy. - -“It’s no good,” he remarked, reappearing again with startling -suddenness. “_There_, I’m back again, you see, and I didn’t mean to be. -_Do_ use one of your wishes on it! Perhaps if I’d only disappeared once -in the proper way, I should get into the hang of it all again. You’d -better turn the Ring besides wishing, to make it more certain.” - -Peggy did so, giving the Ring an extra turn in her zeal, and the Giant -rolled completely up, and disappeared in a twinkling, to her great -satisfaction. “That was _splendid_!” she cried. “You see it was quite -easy! Now come back and do it again by yourself”--but the Giant didn’t -answer at all. - -A little cold wind blew right through the wood and rustled all the -chocolate oak leaves above Peggy’s head, and a squirrel up in the -branches threw a chocolate cream down on her, and then another, and -they both squashed on her striped silk dress. Peggy was not easily -frightened, but it all felt very lonely and queer, particularly as she -didn’t know in the least where she was. She jumped to her feet and -began running about the wood, shouting for the Giant as loudly as she -could. - -It was only when she had been doing this for quite a long time, and -getting no answer at all, that she remembered that she had not wished -or turned the Ring. She at once did both, and, “_Don’t_ tread on me for -goodness’ sake!” said a squeaky voice near her foot. - -Peggy looked down, and there amongst the leaves stood a tiny little -figure reaching no higher than her instep. It was only when she had -picked him up and peered closely into his face that she recognised the -features of the Giant, distorted with rage. - -“Oh dear,” she cried, “what _has_ happened?” - -“You should learn to manage your Ring better, before you treat me like -this!” said the tiny Giant in an exceedingly cross voice. “Put me on -a blade of grass at once, please,--thank you. I don’t like being held -round the middle like that. Why did you turn the Ring more than once? -I’ve never disappeared so uncomfortably fast before. And now look at -the size I am! This is all I can manage after such a shock!” - -“Well, it’s not my fault,” said Peggy with some spirit. “You ought to -know the Ring better than I do. I only did what you told me!” - -“I have got a broad outline of how the thing should be run,” said the -Giant. “But I can’t fill in the details. You will have to learn by -experience, I suppose.” - -“What grand words you use,” said Peggy respectfully, but the Giant -didn’t look mollified at all. - -“Now we’ve used up the five wishes (not counting the failure) so you’d -better wish yourself back in the nursery,” he said. “I don’t see that -you’ve had much fun, and I know I haven’t. Goodness knows how I shall -get back to _my_ house!” - -“Oh, but I want to do lots more,” said Peggy. “I haven’t played at -being grown up at all yet, and I haven’t had any more chocolates!” - -“Never mind, there’s no time left--wish yourself home,” said the Giant. -“Quick, now!” - -He sounded so like Nurse at her crossest that Peggy hurriedly -obeyed,--and the next instant she found herself standing alone in the -nursery in her petticoat, and in the act of putting her ring into the -toy cupboard. - -“You must be cold!” said Nurse, coming in. “I thought I’d never -find your old frock, and leaning over the drawer made me feel quite -faint-like! There! now have a nice game with your dolls,” and she -bustled over to draw the curtain. - -“All the same I wish he hadn’t seemed so cross,” said Peggy to her -Golliwog. “The only really nice part was the chocolate cream.” - -“What _are_ you grumbling about?” asked Nurse. “A chocolate cream, -indeed, at this time of night! I think, if you ask me, that it’s time -all little girls were in bed!” (She was _that_ sort of Nurse.) - -“All right,” said Peggy, jumping up at once. She even began to unbutton -her frock and pull off her hair ribbon to Nurse’s great surprise; who, -of course, couldn’t know that all Peggy wanted was for the next day to -come quickly, so that she could see the Giant again. - -“We’ll really find out the right way to manage the wishing to-morrow,” -she thought as she cuddled down into bed. “It isn’t the dear old -Giant’s fault if he’s forgotten things a little bit. It was really -very clever of him to think of that dress at all! It’s the sort -great-great-grandmother is wearing in the picture in the hall. Perhaps -she was one of the little girls he played with. Fancy him remembering -all that time ago, clever old thing!” She turned her head and stared -up at the ceiling, all golden with the firelight, and crossed with -black crinkly bars from the reflection of the guard. “All the same I -wish he hadn’t looked so cross,” she murmured, as she fell asleep. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -A DAISY FIELD - - -Peggy sat curled up on the big window seat in the nursery reading -_Mary’s Meadow_. At least, you couldn’t call it exactly reading, but -mother had read out bits to her so often that she could remember most -of them by heart. - -Nurse was down in the kitchen talking to Cook; and the rain was pelting -against the window-panes and the wind was blowing the trees all -sideways and flattening down the plants in the garden, and screaming -round and round the house trying to get in and blow Peggy about too. - -Her little fat fingers moved along below the words as she read to -herself in a slow whisper: - -“We went there for flow-ers; we went there for mush-rooms and -puff-balls; we went there to hear the night-in-gale.” - -Peggy stopped, and looked out at the driving rain with a little sigh. -“I wish _I_ had a meadow of my very own!” she thought. And then she -suddenly saw a bright green light coming from the cupboard in front -of her, and at the same moment the Ring flew right through the wooden -door, and straight on to her thumb! - -Peggy gave a little shout of delight. - -“I wish I was in my meadow with my Giant,” she cried as fast as she -could, for she heard Nurse’s step on the stairs. “And picking daisies, -please,” she added, turning the Ring round, and rubbing it too, so as -to make quite certain lots would happen. - - * * * * * - -“I’m perfectly delighted with this effect. My powers are returning, it -seems!” said the Giant, speaking in his grandest though tiniest voice. - -Peggy rubbed her eyes and tried to open them wide, but the sunshine was -so dazzling that for a few seconds she was quite blinded by it. - -Then she saw that she was in a great big green field, edged all round -with a tall green hedge; and growing amongst the grass in the field -were flowers, shaped like daisies of every kind and colour, big ones, -little ones, tall ones, short ones, white, blue, pink, red, yellow, -and purple ones, and even some of colours Peggy had only thought about -sometimes but knew no name for. And the most lovely scent--a sort of -mixture of honey and roses and pansies--came up from the whole field. - -Peggy sat down amongst the flowers, clapping her hands. This was -something like a wish! But where was the Giant? - -“May I _really_ pick a bunch?” she asked, looking towards the place -where she thought his voice had come from. - -“Yes, only be very careful of me!” said the Giant, and Peggy felt -something tickling her hand. - -She looked down and saw the Giant. - -He was still very tiny, and was balancing on the yellow centre of -a scarlet daisy, and reaching up to prick her hand with a bit of -tasselled grass. He had a most roguish and good-tempered expression on -his little fat face, and the sun shone down on his curly beard till it -made it look quite golden. - -“Oh, what fun it must be to be small like that!” said Peggy, clasping -her hands (she was so pleased to find the Giant wasn’t cross any -longer). “I wish _I_ could balance on a daisy too!” - -She at once found herself standing amongst some thick bristling yellow -stalks, like corn, whilst all around her spread up curving blue walls, -stretching, it seemed, right up to the blue sky. - -“What’s happened? Where am I?” she asked in a rather surprised voice. - -“Balancing on a blue daisy,” said the Giant, jumping into the yellow -stalks by her side. And Peggy noticed that they were now both exactly -the same height. “Look out! Hold on!” he added excitedly, catching her -hand. “There’s a breeze passing over the flowers. We’re going swinging!” - -A great rustling sounded in the distance, which suddenly burst into -a roar as a great wind swept by--and down they were flung on to the -huge silky walls as the daisy bowed its head. Then with a tremendous -jerk the flower righted itself, and sent them spinning off on to -another daisy. This one shook its head and slid them on to another, -and so on and on, half across the field, until at last, when they had -learnt to balance, and were swinging dizzily to and fro on a large -violet-coloured petal, the whole thing tilted more suddenly than usual, -and shot them down on to the ground below. - -“Oh, wasn’t it _lovely_!” cried Peggy, looking up through the dim light -at the gigantic heads, still swaying to and fro amongst the great -blades of grass which looked as tall as trees. “What fun it is to be -tiny like this!” - -“I’m getting a bit tired of it,” said the Giant ruefully. He had -knocked his knee on a little stone, and was sitting on the ground -rubbing it. “You left me this size yesterday, you know--and I couldn’t -remember the way to get back to my proper height! I think you’ll have -to use up a wish on me now. After all, you’ve got four left still.” - -“All right,” said Peggy obediently. (Anything to keep the Giant in such -a good temper.) “I wish you were as tall as you were before.” - -The Giant immediately shot up right through the grass and flowers, and -apparently disappeared, for Peggy found herself left by an enormous -black rock which barred the way, and quite shut out all the light there -was in that dark place. She at once began trying to climb it, so as to -find her way back to the Giant, but she had no sooner scrambled up the -first ledge, than a voice that filled the air like several claps of -thunder all sounding at once, bawled out: - -“Get off my boot! I daren’t _move_. You can’t possibly stay as small as -that!” - -“Oh dear, it’s you I’m on, is it?” exclaimed Peggy. “I quite forgot -that I was left so tiny! Now I must use up another wish, I suppose. -What dreadful waste!” And of course there was nothing for it but to do -so, as you can’t possibly have any fun with someone a million times -taller than yourself. - -The next moment she was sitting among the flowers, once more her proper -size, with the Giant, once more _his_ proper size too, standing by her. - -“And _now_, may I begin to pick a bunch for Mummie?” she asked. - -“Certainly,” said the Giant. “There’s no one to stop you; they’re all -your own.” He sat down on a hedge near by, which immediately sank with -his weight, the trees that grew on it toppling down in all directions. -“There, now I’m comfortable,” said he, “and I think I’ll have a nap. I -never slept a wink last night.” And he lay down across what was left of -the hedge, closed his eyes, and started snoring at once. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -THE SLEEPY GIANT - - -“Poor Giant,” said little Peggy, climbing up the hedge to look down at -his round, good-tempered face, and wide-open mouth. “Sometimes he talks -so grandly, but he’s not a bit grand really. I’ll let him stay asleep -for a nice long time whilst I pick a huge, big bunch to send Mummie,” -and she jumped down into the field again. - -“I’ve only two wishes left now,” she thought to herself, as she ran -in and out amongst the daisies. “Or really only one that’s any good, -for I suppose I must use the last to get me home. I really think,” she -went on, as she sat down to tie a bit of grass round a bunch of scarlet -daisies, “that the Giant ought to get me home himself without making me -waste a wish on it! I’m sure that’s always done in books. I’ll speak to -him about it when he wakes.” - -The running about in the hot sun had made Peggy quite thirsty, and -after some searching she found a dear little stream running right -through the field, at which a lot of butterflies were drinking. It was -a beautiful golden colour, and when she tasted it she found it was the -most delicious lemonade, and it had crystallised rose leaves floating -here and there upon it. The butterflies flew round her in hundreds and -allowed her to stroke their soft red and blue and yellow wings, and -when she suggested a game of hide-and-seek they were all delighted, and -fluttered round in such quantities that she could scarcely breathe. - -It turned out a failure in the end, as not one butterfly could be -induced to remain hidden long enough for the others to find him, but -was always flitting in and out of his hiding-place, which, as everyone -knows, completely spoils hide-and-seek. - -However, they had a lovely romp, and it was quite a pretty sight to see -several hundreds of them chasing Peggy back to “Home” (which was the -Giant’s boot) after she had hidden. - -“Oh, do let’s wake the Giant!” said Peggy, as they stopped for breath, -“and make him play too! I know he’d love it!” - -They all gathered round the sleeping Giant, who was lying just as -Peggy had left him, snoring loudly, with his head comfortably pillowed -amongst the spreading roots of a fallen tree. - -But do you think they could wake him? Not they! - -Peggy climbed the hedge and tickled his face with a branch. Then she -tried to shake his arm, but of course couldn’t move it at all. Then -she begged the butterflies to help, and they all flew round him with a -great swishing of wings, making as much noise as they possibly could; -but still the Giant lay there snoring, for he was not used to being up -a whole night long, and was very, very tired. - -A large blue and gold butterfly suggested pouring lemonade on to his -face, and they fetched a good deal between them all, but that wasn’t -the least good, and only slid on to his beard and made it very wet and -sticky. - -[Illustration: This is the picture Peggy drew of the Second Adventure. -It was a very difficult one to do. The Butterflies are just coming up -in hundreds and hundreds to try and wake the Giant. Mother showed Peggy -how to draw the butterflies, but she did nearly all the rest quite by -herself. The Giant sometimes wore that red hat, and sometimes a green -pointed one. The Butterflies and Daisies were the most fun to paint. I -hope you see the Ring.] - -“Oh, what _am_ I to do?” cried Peggy. “It’s not fair! I never heard of -such a thing happening in any Fairy Book! Nannie always lifts me out of -bed when I won’t wake up. I only wish she was here to do it to him!” - -And then she could have bitten her tongue out, for the butterflies -suddenly wheeled round and flew away in a great cloud, and “He _is_ a -heavy weight, Miss Peggy,” said Nurse, appearing on the other side of -the hedge, her face very red and hot. “But I’ll manage it in a moment. -Now then, up with you! _There_ he is, great heavy thing! He ought to be -ashamed of himself, the big baby!” - -Peggy felt dreadfully disappointed, and also rather angry, for though -she didn’t mind getting annoyed with the Giant herself, it was a -different thing hearing Nurse call him names. And now she’d wasted -another wish entirely by accident, and must use her last up as quick -as lightning, for Nurse was already beginning to look very puzzled and -suspicious. - -“I wish we were back in the nursery,” she whispered to the Giant, who -was sitting up on the hedge, rubbing his eyes and staring at Nurse.... -“And I’m very, very angry with you!” she added, as she found herself on -the nursery window-seat again. But she was only answered by a rattle of -raindrops on the panes. - - * * * * * - -“You’ve dropped your nice book on the floor,” said Nurse, coming in -with a pile of aired linen in her arms and a deep frown on her face. -“You’ll have to go back to rag-books again if you serve _Mary’s Meadow_ -like that!” - -“Oh dear, I _quite_ forgot the bunch of daisies!” said Peggy, aghast. - -“Now _what_ daisies, Miss Peggy?” asked Nurse. “I can’t have you -talking nonsense instead of attending to what I say. Pick that book -up immediately. And you’ve got that Ring on your thumb again, I do -declare! Mother wouldn’t like it at all, nasty common thing.” - -“Oh, mayn’t I wear it _sometimes_, Nannie?” Peggy pleaded. “I _know_ -Mummie wouldn’t mind. She always lets me wear the bead necklaces I -make.” - -“No arguing!” said Nurse. “I’m going to put it in this cup on the -bookshelf, and you can ask your mother when she comes back. Time enough -to wear it then if she’ll let you.” - -She _did_ seem cross. No wonder, for, though she didn’t know it, she -had just travelled very many million miles in about three seconds, and -that’s very upsetting to the temper if you’re not used to it. - -And Peggy looked sadly at the cup, for it was far out of her reach even -if she stood on a chair. - -“If I’d only had time to explain to the Giant!” she thought. “_He_ -couldn’t help sleeping so soundly, poor thing. Now perhaps I shall -never see him again.” And she was very subdued indeed for the rest of -the day. - -But she needn’t have worried. You see she kept on forgetting it was a -_Fairy_ Ring. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -SWEETS AND FAIRIES - - -“And if you don’t get muddy, but pick your way nicely, we’ll go to the -village shop and buy a pennyworth of sweets,” said Nurse the next day, -when they started out for their walk. - -“May I pick some primroses if I see them?” asked Peggy, dancing along. - -There never were any on the high road, where Nurse generally chose to -walk, but still there was always the chance there _might_ be one day, -and it was well to get permission beforehand. - -“Yes, if you like,” said Nurse absentmindedly. She was very busy trying -to see into a cab that had just passed, and didn’t really hear. Not -that it mattered. There never were any primroses. - -“There’s one--at least I _fink_ there is!” said Peggy suddenly, when -they had nearly reached the village. She stood on the edge of the ditch -and peered up into the hedge. “Or is it a Fairy, perhaps? _Do_ look, -Nannie, it’s all white and shiny!” - -“A Fairy indeed!” said Nurse, looking up too. “It’s an old bit of paper -blown up there. Be careful, or you’ll be in the ditch!” - -But she was too late, for Peggy lost her balance--or the side of the -ditch gave way--and the next moment the two little gaitered legs were -half hidden in dark brown muddy water! - -“_Very_ good!” said Nurse in a terrible voice. Then she dragged Peggy -out, and walked her back along the road towards home, saying nothing in -her most alarming manner. - -Peggy really felt quite frightened. - -“Nannie, you’re hurting my arm!” she said at last, trying to drag -her hand away. She hated the dry feel of Nurse’s black cotton gloves -pinched around her cold fingers. “Aren’t we going to buy any sweets -after all?” she went on. - -There was no answer. - -“Do you hear?” shouted Peggy desperately, and pulling harder. - -“You should learn to do as you’re told,” said Nurse, taking a firmer -grip, and walking faster still. - -Peggy pulled harder still. She was beginning to feel really naughty. -Besides, she knew it had been a Fairy, and who could think of stupid -old ditches then? Nurse _never_ understood. - -“What _have_ you got on your thumb?” asked Nurse, suddenly stopping, -and dropping Peggy’s hand very quickly. - -Peggy looked down, and there was the Fairy Ring sending out great -sparkles of green light all over the muddy road! She could scarcely -believe her eyes, and Nurse looked rather frightened. - -Peggy felt there was not a second to lose. - -“O Giant, I wish you’d take me away somewhere--and make Nurse nicer!” -she whispered in a great hurry. - - * * * * * - -“You _are_ a oner, you are!” said the Giant admiringly. “You nearly -always ask for two things in one wish--but it never seems to -matter--you get ’em! Now come along, we’ve got to hurry.” - -Peggy and the Giant were walking along a wide silver road. The hedges, -the gates, the trees, the flowers, even the birds that flew over their -heads, were silver, all sparkling and gleaming in the light of a big -silver moon in a blue sky. Peggy had never seen anything so beautiful, -and she looked up at the Giant with very happy eyes as she danced along -the road by his side. - -“I shall always leave you to think of lovely places,” she said. “I -should never have thought of coming here!” - -“It’s the Ring as well,” said the Giant modestly. “But we aren’t there -yet. Sit on my hand; we shall get there quicker that way.” - -“Why, where are we going?” asked Peggy, jumping up and holding on to -his thumb. - -“To Fairy-land,” said the Giant, stepping out briskly, “or at least to -one little bit of it. It’s only as a great treat, because you couldn’t -find a primrose, and never got your sweets. By the way, that _was_ a -Fairy in the hedge,” he added. - -“I _knew_ it was,” said Peggy. “But Nannie _won’t_ see things -sometimes. Oh, look! what _is_ this coming?” - -They had turned a corner, and saw far away above the hills something -that appeared to be a great blue cloud edged with gold, advancing -with a humming sound. As it came nearer Peggy discovered to her great -excitement that it was really a multitude of Fairies all dressed in -the palest blue dresses, their golden hair flowing out around them, -and on their heads silver crowns studded with bright blue stones; and -the humming sound was the rustle of their great blue wings which were -bearing them along at a tremendous rate. - -They made straight for Peggy, led by a tall, beautiful Fairy, whose -blue dress was simply covered with sparkling stones. And there was -something in her pretty smiling face which reminded Peggy of someone, -but she couldn’t remember who. The next moment the Fairy was just above -the Giant’s head; then she dropped suddenly, and catching Peggy up by -the hand she and all the rest of the Fairies rose high in the air again -and flew off by the way they had come. - -Peggy clutched the Fairy’s hand very tightly for some time, for they -were all going so fast that the rush of air made her feel quite -breathless. But when she was rather more used to it, she turned her -head to look at the Fairies following, and suddenly saw that she had -grown a magnificent pair of blue wings too! - -She at once tried to flap them, and found she could do so quite well, -though rather jerkily at first, and the Giant--who was striding along -in the air just below her--looked up with a wide grin on his round face. - -“Capital, capital!” he called out. “Well, how do you like flying?” - -“It’s _lovely_!” shouted back Peggy. “You _do_ think of splendid -things! And so do you!” she added, looking up gratefully into the -Fairy’s face. - -And then she gave a great start, for, of course, she saw now who the -Fairy was. She was Nurse! - -Peggy gasped, and very nearly dropped right down. It was certainly -Nurse, but Nurse looking happy, Nurse looking pleased with Peggy, Nurse -seeming as though for once she was actually enjoying herself! It really -seemed too good to be true, and Peggy darted another glance of great -thankfulness down at the Giant. - -“I’m glad you think it fun,” said Nurse, in a sweet, clear voice. “But -you needn’t flap quite so hard. Look, give long, steady sweeps like -this,” and she sprang forward even quicker into the air, and then -showed Peggy exactly how it was done, till she had learnt perfectly. - -The land was changing below them, or they were much higher up. It was -sometimes bright and coloured like a rainbow, sometimes as red as fire, -and sometimes so dark that they could see nothing below them. Once a -terrible smell of smoke rose up, and Nurse called to everyone to mount -higher. - -“What a dreadful place that was,” said Peggy, when they once more saw -the pretty rainbow land below them again. “Who lives there?” - -“Ogres,” said Nurse, “heaps of them. I hate passing their way, but it’s -a short cut. That red country we passed just now was where the Dragons -live. They’re even worse, nasty ill-bred creatures! However, we’ve -passed them all now, and here we come down.” - -They were right above a cleared space in a big black wood, and at a -signal from Nurse, all the Fairies paused, and, half folding their -wings, floated down amongst the trees. Peggy did so too, and balanced -on a large branch, closing her wings up neatly as she saw the others -doing. - -“Now, each take a tree and begin,” called Nurse, who was flying about -looking happier than ever, “and after that we’ll have some games!” - -Then Peggy noticed what extraordinary trees they were all perched upon. -For from every twig were hanging by silver strings the most fascinating -little tiny sugar animals and birds of every colour and kind--blue -elephants, mauve dogs, scarlet mice, yellow nightingales, and -everything else you can think of. And all through the wood she could -hear the Fairies calling and laughing to each other as they fluttered -up and down the trees and ate the pretty things. - -“May I?” asked Peggy, her fingers closing round a purple sparrow, and -looking at Nurse who she hardly dared believe would be so changed as to -allow her to eat as many sweets as she liked! - -“Of course,” said Nurse smiling--and Peggy had never realised before -how very nicely Nurse could smile. She also longed to tell her how -pretty she looked with her golden hair all flying loose in the air. But -she didn’t dare. “I advise you to try that pink cow just behind you,” -went on Nurse. “No, not that one, the very big one by the trunk. That’s -it. Now, _isn’t_ that good?” - -It was certainly too lovely for words. It had the delicious taste that -a strawberry ice has before you’ve eaten too many at a party, and it -was also rather like pineapples and pear-drops and Tangerine oranges, -and yet it was far better than any of them. - -Peggy soon got quite good at half fluttering, half balancing along the -branches like the others were doing, and trying each different sweet by -turn. - -(I’m afraid this sounds rather a greedy adventure of Peggy’s, but it -wasn’t really, as it happened in Fairy-land, and there were enough -sweets for everyone, and no one felt sick when they’d eaten too many.) - -She had just bitten a pink sugar rabbit in half, and found it tasted -just like meringues, when she remembered the Giant. - -“Oh dear,” she cried, “where is the Giant? I’d quite forgotten him!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -FE-FO-FUM! - - -Nurse looked very worried indeed. - -“So had I,” she said. “We must have gone too fast for him!” And she -flew up on to the top of a tree and gazed away across the hills. “He -never _will_ let us lend him wings,” she went on, “so he always gets -left behind. He says his seven-leagued boots will last _him_ out all -right, and it’s no good arguing with him. Now, I expect he’s stuck -somewhere, or has stumbled upon the Ogres and had a fight.” - -“What!” cried Peggy in great horror. “My Giant fighting? Oh, he’d -_sure_ to be beaten. What shall I do?” and she fluttered to and fro in -great distress. - -“Why, wish he were here, of course,” said Nurse. “You’ve five wishes -left still, haven’t you?” - -Peggy wished at once, and the Giant came crashing through the wood, -upsetting the sugar trees in all directions. - -“Oh, look!” said Nurse. “_How_ careless you are!” (But she didn’t say -it a bit in her old cross way.) “Plant those trees again before you do -anything else!” - -The Giant looked terribly knocked about and woebegone, and his coat was -all in tatters, but he did as he was told at once, balancing the trees -up again, and stamping in their roots well, like Peggy had seen the -gardener do with his plants. Then he sat down on the ground and wiped -his hot face with his pocket-handkerchief, and the Fairies all stopped -eating sweets to hear what he had to say. - -“Phew!” he gasped, “I’ve had an awful time! Whatever possessed you all -to go at such a pace?” - -“Well, I like that!” said Nurse. “When it was you who asked us to get -to the sugar-wood before dark!” - -“I wish I hadn’t now,” said the Giant. “Trying to catch you up I -stumbled right into the middle of the Ogres, and I’d no sooner got away -from them--after having my coat torn half off my back--than I stepped -plump on to the Red Dragon, and you know what _that_ means!” - -“Dear, dear!” said Nurse. “Was he very vexed?” - -“Vexed!” said the Giant. “He was in such a hideous passion that he -made after me as fast as he could waddle--and then he started gliding. -I was up in the air in a moment, I can tell you, striding along for all -I was worth, and when he saw he couldn’t catch me from the ground he -took to his wings and flew! And when a Dragon uses his wings--well--you -know what you’ve got to expect! He’s after me now--and the Ogres are, -too!” he added resignedly. - -“Oh, they’ll never find you here!” said Nurse. “The Ring brought you -along faster than any Ogre or Dragon could travel.” - -“I thought an Ogre was almost the same as a Giant?” Peggy whispered to -Nurse. - -“Good gracious, no!” said she. “Don’t let the Giant hear you say -that! They’re a set of vagabonds and ruffians who haunt the edge of -Fairy-land. The kind with one eye in their foreheads, and the sort who -say ‘Fe-Fo-Fum.’ You _must_ have read about them? They can’t harm us -Fairies, but any Giant, especially a really nice good one like yours, -makes them simply _mad_!” - -Peggy slid off her branch and flew to the Giant, perching on his -shoulder and stroking his hair. - -“I’ll take care of you,” she said, “if they _do_ come. Don’t you be -afraid! He’ll be all right, won’t he?” she added, turning to the -Fairies. - -But they were not listening. - -They had all flown to the tops of their trees and were balancing on the -topmost branches, bending forward and listening intently. For there was -a soft humming, grumbling, hissing, bleating, gurgling sound coming -from somewhere very far away! - -“That’s the Ogres,” said Nurse, looking very grave--and the sound got a -tiny bit louder. - -Then a little cold, tinkling, rippling, singing, shivering, clinking -sound began as well--so faint that it was just like a funny little -whisper, and “That’s the Dragon and he’ll be here first!” cried all -the Fairies together, looking graver still, and they began to flutter -round Peggy and the Giant, staring at the Ring, which was winking and -flashing long green darts of light over everything and everybody. - -“What shall I wish?” asked Peggy, glancing at the Giant, who was -obviously too tired out to move another step. (The sounds were every -second getting louder and louder.) “I--I should rather like to see -them,” she added shyly, “if I can make the dear Giant _quite_ safe.” - -“Wish me to be invisible,” said the Giant wearily. “Then I shan’t have -to get up. I’ve been practising it, so you won’t have any difficulty.” - -“Yes, that’ll do nicely,” said Nurse. The noise had suddenly become so -loud that Peggy could hardly hear her. “And you get as much behind the -trunk as you can,” she went on to Peggy at the top of her voice, “and -I’ll sit on a branch in front of you and hide you. If they _do_ see -you, you’ve only got to wish yourself invisible too.” - -The noise had now changed to the rattling kind that a million luggage -trains would make if they were all driven along in a row at once, and -Peggy could hear tree after tree crashing to the ground. She had only -just time to wish, and see the Giant disappear completely, when a great -red creature plunged down through the branches above into the open -space in front of the Fairies, and fell on his side, quite close to -Peggy’s tree, lashing his tail and panting like a dog. - -Tongues of red and blue fire flashed and darted up and down his scaly -back, and his scarlet wings spreading across the grass withered it up -at once. Peggy did feel glad she hadn’t missed the sight! But she took -the precaution to wish that he should not crush the Giant, in case -invisible Giants _could_ be crushed. - -In a few seconds the Dragon rolled on to his little short stubbly feet -and waddled up to Nurse. - -“Where’s the Giant?” he lisped in a high and very soft voice. “I -_know_ he’s somewhere here, and I’ll flatten down every one of your -sugar trees if you don’t tell me this minute!” - -There was really something very frightening in his little polite voice! - -“You wouldn’t dare!” said Nurse, laughing scornfully. “Run along and -look about for him! He must be somewhere, as you rightly remark,” and -she turned her back on him and began to nibble at a sugar bird. - -The Dragon raised his eyebrows ironically, but finding Nurse was not -looking at him any longer, he began to trot and glide about the wood, -sticking his long red tongue under the fallen trees to lift them up, -and hissing to himself more and more when he couldn’t find the Giant -anywhere. - -(And all the time the sound of the Ogres coming got louder and louder -and louder!) - -“There’s some magic going on!” said the Dragon at last, angrily, -raising himself up on to the very tip of his tail and glaring over the -tree-tops. “Ha, ha!” he added, “here come the others at last,” and he -stretched out two welcoming paws to the two enormous Ogres who at that -moment crashed into the wood. - -Peggy nearly tumbled out of the tree in her excitement, for this was -worth seeing indeed! One of the Ogres had only one eye in the middle of -his forehead, just as she’d thought he would, and he did nothing but -say “Fe-Fo-Fum!” over and over again, and stamp and growl and snarl. - -The other one had three heads which all looked different ways, and he -kept gnashing his three lots of teeth and snorting at the Dragon, who -_would_ go on smiling at him. - -Then both Ogres advanced upon Nurse, brandishing their clubs. - -[Illustration: Peggy drew this to show what the Dragon looked like -when Nurse said, “You wouldn’t dare!” Nurse is on the left and is just -going to eat her sugar bird. Peggy is up above peeping from behind the -tree. She wanted to draw the Ogres too, but there wasn’t any room. -Mother only helped her with some of the branches, everything else she -did by herself, and the Fairies took ages to do. They are sitting on -the boughs eating the sugar animals and birds. It made the Dragon -=furious= to see they weren’t afraid of him a bit. Those long -things on the ground are the trees he knocked down, and the bits of red -are the fires he started with his red-hot paws. The Giant is invisible -sitting on the grass, just behind the Dragon’s tongue.] - -“We went miles out of our way!” they roared. “Where’s he gone to now?” - -Nurse looked them over calmly from head to toe. - -“Take your caps off this moment,” she said severely. “I _think_ you -forget who you’re speaking to!” - -They looked rather cowed for the moment, and took their caps off -sheepishly without saying a word, though the Dragon’s chuckle was -enough to infuriate anybody. (The Ogre with the three heads had of -course to take off three caps.) - -“That’s better!” said Nurse. “Now, what _do_ you want?” - -“The Giant, of course,” growled the Ogre with one eye. “Fe-Fo-Fum! -Fe-Fo-Fum!” and he trampled up and down restlessly. - -It was more than Peggy could stand. - -“Oh, _do_ go on with the verse!” she called out imploringly, leaning -forward right out of the tree. “You’ve said that line over and over -again, and it’s not _nearly_ all! You _must_ remember how it goes on: - - ‘Fe-Fo-Fum! - I smell the blood of an Englishman! - Be he alive----’” - -but she got no further, for with a scream of triumph the Dragon flung -himself forward and seized her tree right up by the roots, and the -nearest Ogre at the same moment plucked her out of it by his finger and -thumb. - -“Quick, Miss Peggy!” screamed Nurse, and Peggy did wish quick, ... and -found herself back on the old muddy high road again, being dragged -along it by Nurse. “For if you don’t hurry a bit more,” she went on, -“you’ll catch your death of cold in those wet socks.” - -Peggy burst into tears. Nurse was no longer a bit like a nice Fairy, -and it was all such a dreadfully sudden change, and everything felt so -very flat. Even the stone in her Ring looked small, and as dull as a -pebble. - -“Oh dear, oh dear!” she sobbed. “And we never got to the games at all! -And I’ve still got one wish left that I never used. Now it will be -wasted!” and the tears poured fast down her cheeks. - -Nurse looked down at her in astonishment, for Peggy never cried. - -“What’s come over you all of a sudden?” she asked. - -“I _wish_ you were always nice like just now,” sobbed Peggy, quite -forgetting Nurse never remembered anything about the adventures. “We -were having such a _lovely_ time! And then you went and made me leave -at the most exciting bit.” - -“I don’t think it’s very exciting to stand in a muddy ditch!” said -Nurse, but her voice had all at once become very soft and gentle. “But -never mind, Miss Peggy dear. I’ll tell you the story of the Three Bears -now if you like, then we shall soon get home. And perhaps there’ll be a -letter from Mother; I shouldn’t wonder!” - -Peggy could scarcely believe her ears, for except in Fairy-land Nurse -never really talked like that. Her tears were forgotten very quickly, -for Nurse went on being like it all the rest of the day, laughing and -playing and romping with Peggy right up till bedtime, and even a little -while after! - -Peggy _couldn’t_ make it out. - -You see she never noticed that she _had_ used up her sixth wish after -all. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -PEGGY DRIVES A CAR - - -“What’s that whizzing, Nurse?” asked Peggy, as she was picking a bunch -of double snowdrops in the garden the next afternoon. - -“A motor, I expect,” said Nurse, who was talking to the gardener--and -she ran to peep down the drive through the bushes. “Callers, I’ll be -bound. Yes, here it comes, a big red car. There’s a fat lady in behind, -and a girl chauffeur driving it.” - -“Let’s see,” said Peggy, pressing into the bushes too. - -Nurse was not quite like she had been the evening before, because, -of course, Peggy’s wishes never lasted on to the next day, but still -she wasn’t _nearly_ as cross as usual, and she had been playing -hide-and-seek with Peggy quite half the afternoon, until the gardener -came up to talk. - -“Now they’ve heard your Mother’s not here, and are going away again,” -Nurse went on. “There, look! They’ve stuck at the difficult turn, and -the engine’s stopped! My, doesn’t that girl look cross? Get back, Miss -Peggy, they’ll see us! Now you can hide once more if you like before -tea. I’ll just finish giving John the message about the vegetables.” - -“I wish I knew how to drive a motor,” thought Peggy longingly, as she -trotted off to hide behind some laurels. “I’d go like the wind, and -wouldn’t stop at any corners----Why--what’s happened?” - -For she was driving the big red car as fast as lightning down the -drive! - -“You never noticed you had the Ring on!” chuckled the Giant. “Well -turned! Never mind the gate-post.” - -He was sitting at the back, but with his legs sticking right out in -front beyond the bonnet; and his elbows kept knocking great pieces out -of the hedges as they whizzed along. - -“What’s--what’s happened to the fat lady and the chauffeur?” gasped -Peggy, clutching the steering-wheel for dear life, her cheeks scarlet, -her hair streaming out behind her. - -“I put them out in the drive,” said the Giant. “I expect they’ll follow -us if they want to.” - -“Weren’t they angry?” asked Peggy, bumping over a sheep because she -didn’t know how to stop the car. “Oh dear, did I hurt him?” - -“He’s all right, he’s up again,” said the Giant, turning round. “The -Ring won’t let you hurt anything or anybody however much you knock -into them. Angry? Oh, I really hadn’t time to stop and see. It’s all -forgotten afterwards, you see. Look out for this corner. Oh well, never -mind, we may as well be out of the road as in it!” For the car, not -having been turned quick enough, had neatly leapt the hedge, and was -now speeding across a ploughed field. - -“Let her out, let her out!” said the Giant. “You said you wanted to go -fast, I thought. Go on, let her out!” - -Peggy didn’t know exactly what he meant, or what to do, but she -whispered a wish that they might go still quicker, and the car rose in -the air and raced along just a little above the level of the hedges. - -“I think this is lovelier than anything we’ve done at all!” she shouted -back to the Giant. “Oh, look! we’re coming to a town, I do believe! I -wish I could drive through it just as though I was a real chauffeur. It -would be so _grand_!” - -“Steady, steady! Wishes don’t grow on blackberry bushes,” cried the -Giant warningly, but at once the car slowed down, and dropped into the -high road, and Peggy found herself dressed exactly like the girl she -had seen, and driving slowly along at the rate of about fifteen miles -an hour. At first she tried to steer the car herself, but when she -found that it guided itself when left alone, and that the horn sounded -and the gear changed much better by themselves, she leant back and -amused herself by staring at the people, and then at the shops, as they -reached the principal streets of the town. - -Suddenly she noticed that all the people they passed were beginning -to behave in the most extraordinary manner, some of them racing away -down side streets, screaming, others beginning to chase the car -and shout at the top of their voices. Once they came on a line of -policemen all standing in a row across the road with notebooks in their -hands, but the car made very short work of them, scattering them in -all directions, and though Peggy turned round and saw them picking -themselves up at once and evidently not hurt in the very least, such a -roar went up from the crowds in the streets that she asked the Giant in -great perplexity why they were all so angry. Hadn’t they ever seen a -lady chauffeur before? - -“I expect it’s partly because of me,” said the Giant comfortably. “I -knocked a piece right off the General Post Office just now with my -elbow. You’d better rise again, I think.” - -Peggy wished--but to her horror nothing happened, except that the car -began to slow down, and crowds and crowds of people from all directions -at once pressed around it, shouting and shaking their fists at the -Giant. - -“Goodness me!” said the Giant, who had no sooner pushed away one lot -than another came up. “The Magic’s gone wrong again! Turn the Ring -quickly!” - -Peggy did so, and the car rose with an awful jerk into the air and -began to twist in and out amongst the chimney pots in an aimless sort -of way till the Giant nearly toppled out, and Peggy felt quite giddy. -At last she seized the wheel and tried to steer, and really felt they -were making a little headway, when suddenly, without any warning, -the car made a dart upwards, and then dropped on to the top of an -ornamental steeple crowning the new Town Hall, where it stuck, the -wheels turning madly. - -“Now we _are_ in a fix!” said the Giant uneasily. “I thought I’d -remembered all about the wishing by now, but I’ve made a hash of it -this time, and no mistake. You’d better wish we were safely home again. -I can always manage _that_.” - -“No, thank you!” said Peggy. “I did that yesterday before I’d used up -all my wishes. I’m not going to do it again. I don’t mind it up here at -all; I think it’s rather fun!” - -“_That’s_ not much fun!” said the Giant, looking down out of the car. - -Peggy looked too--and could not help giving a little jump. Packed in -the Square below them was the first crowd she had ever seen, and it was -really rather frightening. Everybody was looking up and shouting and -waving, and there was no doubt at all that they were very angry indeed. -Still, in spite of the muddles the Giant so often made, Peggy always -felt perfectly safe with him. - -“I _can’t_ hear what they say,” she said, “all talking at once like -that! Do call down and ask them to speak clearer. They’ll hear _you_.” - -But the Giant was shaking with fright, and trying to hide himself under -the seat, which, considering he was many sizes too big for the car, -looked a hopeless task. - -“Better leave them alone,” he muttered. “They’ll only get angrier still -if we answer them.” - -At that moment Peggy noticed a little fat man in a long red gown making -his way through the crowd. Behind him came two men carrying a long -ladder. This they put against the Town Hall, and the little fat man -climbed to the top, and then off on to the roof just below the car. He -was purple in the face with breathlessness and rage. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -THE MAYOR’S OUTING - - -“That’s the Mayor, that is,” said the Giant in a terrified whisper, and -he practically stood on his head in his efforts to wriggle part of his -face under the seat. “If there is one thing that frightens me more than -another it is a Mayor! I remember in 1615, or thereabouts--but that -will keep till another time. Do you think he can see me? Can’t we go on -_now_?” - -“Certainly not!” said Peggy. “I want to hear what he’s going to say. He -can’t _do_ anything to us, you know. Really, I think this is the best -adventure of all!” - -“Hi!” called the Mayor. “Go on this moment, or we’ll make you!” - -“We can’t!” shouted Peggy. “We’re stuck! A bit of the spire’s come -right through the car!” - -“Nonsense!” shouted the Mayor, “you can get off perfectly well if you -choose. The spire wasn’t built for the likes of you to go trapesing -about on. Get off it!” - -“We _cant_, I tell you!” cried Peggy, losing all patience. “Come up and -look for yourself! Come on, climb on to the Giant’s boot!” For by this -time the Giant had given up trying to hide himself, and was sitting on -the car with his legs dangling into space, and looking the picture of -misery. - -“Stretch your foot down a little more,” said Peggy to him. “There,” as -it dangled just above the Mayor’s head, “now jump this instant!” - -“I won’t!” said the Mayor, ducking his head as the great boot hovered -above it. “I never heard of such proceedings in my life!” He leant over -the edge of the roof. “They _won’t_ go on!” he shouted to the crowd -below. - -“Make ’em!” came in a perfect roar from the Square. - -“Come along,” said Peggy coaxingly. (It would be something, she felt, -to tell Nurse when she got back that she had had a real live Mayor in -her car. Besides, it would be fun for him. But she wasn’t going to use -up a wish on it. Peggy had grown very wary by this time.) - -The Mayor stood looking very undecided, but when he saw the crowd -beginning to shake their fists at him as well, he gave a jump, caught -the Giant’s boot, and raised himself into a sitting position on the toe -of it. - -“Will you promise to do your best to get off if I come up and have a -look?” he asked in a shaking voice. - -“Of course we will,” said Peggy soothingly.--“Don’t look such a big -frightened baby!” she added reprovingly to the Giant.--“Draw your boot -up gently. There, that’s right”--as the Mayor was sidled carefully off -into the front seat; “_now_ I wish we could go on!” - -[Illustration: This is a painting of the Fourth Adventure. Peggy is -just telling the Mayor that they’ve stuck. She’s rather afraid the -Giant will fall out in a minute, that’s why she’s holding on to his -back. You can see by her face she isn’t a bit frightened of the Mayor. -This was Mother’s favourite picture. The Mayor was very difficult to -draw, but he looked =just= like that Peggy said. None of the crowd -had on red jackets really, but Peggy thought they looked pretty in a -picture. You see the Ring, don’t you? Peggy quite forgot about the -Giant’s red stockings till the picture was finished!] - -The car shook itself all over, then leapt upwards, and once more set -off at breakneck speed, but this time straight upwards into the sky! -Something at the same moment fell out with a heavy flop. Peggy turned -her head hastily, just in time to see the Giant falling through the air -behind them. But the car was rising upwards at such a pace that the -next moment he and the whole town disappeared from view! - -“_Stop!_” said a frightened voice at her side, and she turned and saw -the Mayor, whom for the moment she had _quite_ forgotten. His face was -no longer purple, but as white as a sheet. - -“I can’t!” said Peggy. “I’ve only one wish left, and that’s got to take -me home. You asked me to get off the spire, you know, and I _have_! The -Giant’s wearing his seven-leagued boots, so he’ll soon catch us up when -he gets balanced again.” She skirted the edge of a pink sunset cloud -as she spoke, and drove right up through a lemon-coloured one. “Oh, -how lovely!” she went on delightedly. “I got a great chunk of it in my -mouth, and it tasted just like pineapple. Did you?” - -“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said the Mayor. “We’ve just -been through an awful fog, and I insist on you stopping the car at -once. If you can’t--and I see you don’t understand the first rudiments -of driving--I can!” - -He leant across her and seized the steering-wheel, but it at once came -off in his hand, rolled down his arm, and jumped out of the car. - -“_There!_” said Peggy triumphantly, to the now speechless Mayor. “See -what comes of meddling!” (She felt quite like Nurse when she spoke -like that.) “Never mind, my car goes just as well without _that_ bit!” -and she leant back in her seat and crossed her arms grandly. “The only -thing I’m worrying about,” she went on, “is, if the Giant will ever -find us! You don’t see him coming, do you? Look down through the hole -in the car.” - -“Unless you stop, I shall jump out,” said the Mayor in a desperate -voice. And he stood up and really looked as though he meant to! - -“Oh, _do_ sit down,” said Peggy. “You spoil everything. Just look, -we’re going right on to this rainbow, I do believe! Yes, we’re on the -purple part. Isn’t it a lovely smooth road? There, now, we’re off it -and on the pink bit! Oh, why _don’t_ you sit still and love it all as I -do?” - -“Because I’m going to get out,” said the Mayor, stepping over the door -and lowering himself slowly till only his hand holding the step, and -his very reproachful face showed themselves. “Now then,” he added, -“you’ve only got till I count five; I shall let go then--perhaps”--he -added in a whisper, being a truthful Mayor, but very softly so that she -shouldn’t hear. - -“Oh dear, it _is_ mean of you to make me use up my last wish so -soon!” said Peggy in a very vexed voice. “And I managed this drive -especially for you, to make up for our having spoilt the Post Office -and things.--Oh, very well,” she added crossly, as the Mayor reached -four, and let go one hand, “I wish you were home and I was too, because -you simply spoil everything when you won’t play properly!”... - -“If I do, it’s not for you to say so, Miss Peggy,” was the reply, and -Peggy found herself back in the garden again facing a rather red-faced -and angry Nurse. “Just because I stop to speak to John for one moment, -is no reason for you to think yourself neglected! I’m sure I never -heard you call you were ready, so how was I to know? Then you come -bouncing down on me like that!” - -“Why, Nannie, did I bounce?” asked Peggy, very much interested. She had -wondered before what her return looked like when the wishes were over. - -“Don’t repeat my words,” said Nurse crossly. “I was meaning the way you -spoke, of course. How could you bounce down from behind the laurels? -Now, come along into tea at once.” - -“O Nannie, I’ve had such fun!” said Peggy, dancing along the path. “I -went _up_, and _up_, and _up_----” - -“There!” exclaimed Nurse. “One moment it’s grumble, grumble, the -next all the other way! I won’t have you climbing trees either in -hide-and-seek. You can’t expect to be found if you act like that. -Now--not another word----” - -“I’m afraid the Giant’s dreadfully lost this time!” thought Peggy, as -she washed her hands for tea. “I don’t fink I was very kind to him! I -do wonder if the fat lady minded the big hole in the car, and the wheel -being lost. Oh, but I suppose that all comes right again, just as she -forgets that the Giant sat her down in the drive! It would be lovely to -tell Nannie that I’d driven a Mayor up a rainbow in a real motor car! -But it’s no good _trying_ to, she doesn’t understand the sensiblest -things.” - -And she ran into the day nursery to see which jam cook had sent up for -tea. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -DOWN! - - -“See me dance the polka!” went the old tune--and then again and -again--and Peggy lay in bed listening to it and staring at the fire. - -The children next door were having a party in their hall, and every -time the front door opened the sound of the music came crashing out, -and jumped in through Peggy’s open window. Of course, she ought to have -been at the party too, but, for one thing, she had had a cold all day, -and for another, Nurse didn’t think the children next door had properly -got over measles, so she was afraid to let Peggy go. - -Peggy hadn’t much minded until now. Nurse had petted her all day and -given her little bits of buttered toast at tea with apricot jam on -them, and then had let the housemaid come up and play dominoes with -her until bedtime, and now she had tucked her up warmly in bed with -a hot-water bottle and told her to go to sleep quickly, so that she -should be quite well before Mother came home the next day. - -But go to sleep was just what Peggy couldn’t do. For one thing, -thinking of Mother coming back was enough to make her keep wanting to -jump out of bed and dance all over the room. And then the music too had -begun to make her rather long to run into the house next door and play -musical chairs with all the other children. - -It was then that she suddenly felt the Ring pressing on her thumb, and -realised that she had quite forgotten to wish at all that day! - -“Oh dear, suppose it hadn’t come, I might have forgotten altogether,” -she thought in dismay. “And now I’m rather frightened of seeing the -Giant, in case he’s angry about the Mayor. I wonder what I’d better -wish?” - -She lay in bed thinking about it for quite a long time, until suddenly -hearing some carriages driving off and the music stopping, she realised -she was too late to wish to join the children’s party next door anyway. - -“Oh, I wish the Giant was here,” she said at last. “He can always think -of lovely things to do.” - -“Your window’s uncommonly small,” said the Giant, climbing in through -it, and bringing with him big bits of the wall on each shoulder. -“Gracious me, what a mess I’m in!” He shook himself and lay down on the -floor with his face close to the fire. “I’ve been looking in at the -party next door,” he went on. “Great fun--but they’re gone now. I saw -’em into their cabs. Why weren’t you there?” - -“Because I’ve a cold,” said Peggy, sneezing three times. (The Giant -seemed to have brought in all the cold night air with him.) “Nannie -thinks I caught it hiding behind the laurels so long yesterday, but _I_ -know it was going through that lovely wet yellow cloud!” - -The Giant’s face clouded over. “Least said soonest mended about that,” -he said shortly. “I particularly told you of my aversion to Mayors, and -you at once take one for a drive and leave me behind! That was not in -the least what I meant. However, I will say no more. This is your last -day but one with me, so we won’t waste it with quarrelling. What’s your -wish? Be quick now, for this lovely hot fire makes me very sleepy.” - -Peggy jumped out of bed, caught hold of the Giant’s little finger and -hugged it. - -“I’m _so_ sorry,” she said coaxingly. “I like you better than any Mayor -that ever was born, Giant darling. And I didn’t _mean_ to leave you -behind. Did you have an awful time?” - -“Well, I went wandering about the sky for the rest of the night looking -for you,” said the Giant. “I heard you’d been on the rainbow, but -after that I lost all trace of you. Still, never mind; as you’re sorry, -I don’t mind any more. Go on, wish away.” - -“It’s no good, I’ve tried to,” said Peggy. “We seem to have done -everything exciting. We’ve been up----” - -“How about going down for a change?” asked the Giant. - -“Down?” said Peggy. “But we _are_ down!” - -“Do you call _this_ down?” said the Giant laughing. “Come along, get on -my hand and wish,” and he laid his hand palm upwards on the hearthrug. - -“Wish what?” asked Peggy, putting on her blue dressing-gown and -slippers. - -“To go down, of course,” said the Giant impatiently. “Has your cold -made you deaf?” - -“Oh, all right, I wish to go down,” said Peggy, clambering up on to the -Giant’s hand. “But it sounds very dull--_Gracious!_ Hold me tight!” for -they both at once went right through the nursery floor and into the -dining-room below. - -“Oh, look!” said Peggy. “What a mess we’ve made of the ceiling. The -table’s all covered with bits of it! Oughtn’t we to clear it up?” - -“Don’t waste time,” said the Giant. “Come on,” and down through the -carpet they went and right into the kitchen. - -The servants were all at supper, but Peggy had only just time to catch -sight of their terrified faces and to hear their chairs crashing to the -floor as they all jumped up, before the Giant went right through that -floor too! - -After that they went down so fast that her curls flew up in a waving -cone above her head, and the Giant’s beard flapped across her face and -hid everything. She shut her eyes at last, until--“Open them, we’re -down!” said the Giant, and they both flopped on to some long brown -grass. - -[Illustration: This is a picture of the fifth Adventure. The mark on -the ceiling is the awful hole the Giant and Peggy made coming through. -The Giant is waving his hand to Cook as they go down. The footman has -only just seen the hole, and is showing it to everybody. The housemaid -who played dominoes with Peggy is screaming out “Stop them, Cook!” and -the scullery maid has sat down on the floor with her hands over her -face. Cook is fainting by the table. She had just put a pudding on it -for the servants supper. Peggy couldn’t put Nurse into the picture -because she wasn’t sure if she was in the kitchen then or not. You -=do= see the Ring, don’t you?] - -Peggy stared round in astonishment. They were sitting in the middle of -a great brown plain, edged all ground with little pointed brown hills -rising up to a golden sky. And, “Oh, what ducky little houses!” cried -Peggy, for nestling up the sides of every hill were hundreds of tiny -brown thatched cottages, each with a dear little garden in front of it, -full of vegetables and brightly coloured berries. - -“Where on earth are we?” she asked. - -“Nowhere,” said the Giant. “We’re _in_ it. This is the Pixies’ country. -Look, they’re coming out of their houses. Do you see them? They’ve -heard us coming.” - -A great opening of doors sounded from all around, and out poured the -Pixies, and raced across the plain to Peggy and the Giant. Little fat -brown fellows they were, dressed in dark shades of green and red, with -round wrinkled faces and pointed caps. When they were quite near, they -all stood in a crowd whispering and giggling, till two of them, holding -a huge curled-up yellow leaf between them, were pushed forward towards -Peggy. - -“What have they got?” she whispered to the Giant. - -“An invitation, I expect,” he whispered back, “for the party to-night.” - -“What party?” asked Peggy, but “Hush, don’t, whisper, they’ll think -you’re making personal remarks,” answered the Giant. “They’re very -sensitive.” And certainly the Pixies carrying the leaf came to a dead -stop, and, apparently overcome with shyness, dropped it on the ground, -and raced back to their companions, where they stood sniggering and -covering their faces with their hands, and peeping through their -fingers at Peggy. - -“How funny they are!” said Peggy in amazement. “Why _do_ they do that?” - -“_I_ don’t know,” said the Giant. “I think it’s because they have so -few holidays and see so few people. But they’re a queer lot, and I -don’t profess to understand them! You’d better read your invitation.” - -Peggy picked the leaf up, and, unrolling it, read as follows: “We -invite Peggy and the Giant to a Ball in the Distant Purple Caves in -half an hour. Skating, Eating, Flitting, Mazing, Wending and other -Amusements.” - -“Oh dear, _how_ exciting! Can I go?” asked Peggy, beginning to dance -about all over the plain. - -The Giant took the invitation and read it slowly. - -“My goodness me, it _is_ going to be a smart affair!” said he. “Yes, I -think we can manage it all right. Only we shall have to dress up for -it, I’m afraid. It wouldn’t do to look dowdy.” - -“But what do Flitting, Mazing, and Wending mean?” asked Peggy, looking -at the invitation again. - -“Well, Flitting is flying round one after the other at the very top -of the caves and copying everything the front Pixie does,” said the -Giant, “and the one who goes on longest gets a prize. It’s tiring, but -exciting; a sort of Follow-my-Leader, only a better game. And Wending -is dancing up and down the Unexplored Passages and seeing who can pick -up most diamonds first. They only have it at the very grandest parties. -And Mazing is--now, what _is_ Mazing? I’ve quite forgotten! However, I -shall probably remember it in a minute or two.” - -“Do you accept?” asked a tiny, shy voice at Peggy’s elbow, and she -looked down to see a Pixie standing by her. - -“Yes, we’d _love_ to come, and it’s very kind of you to ask us,” said -Peggy very politely. “I hope you’ll excuse my writing,” she added, -having sometimes heard her mother say this. - -“They’d _love_ to come!” shouted the Pixie to the others, and “They’d -_love_ to come!” shouted the rest, till the hills echoed with the -sound, and then they all turned and raced back to their cottages, -stopping now and then to giggle and snigger and look over their -shoulders at Peggy and the Giant, before the little doors slammed again -behind them. - -“Very over-excited indeed,” remarked the Giant. “Now they’ll take the -rest of the time dressing up. And, by the way, we ought to be getting -ready too.” - - - - -CHAPTER X - -PIXIE GAMES - - -“What did you think of wearing?” asked the Giant. - -“Let me see,” said Peggy. “Yes--I think I wish to go as a Fairy, in -pink. What would _you_ like to be?” - -“The wishes do work well now!” said the Giant in a gratified voice, for -Peggy stood before him glittering in a rosy spangled frock and gleaming -silver wings, with a star on her forehead and a wand in her hand all -complete. “Well, if you’ll really be so kind as to use up another wish -on me, I think I’d rather like to go as Little Boy Blue.” - -“Certainly!” said Peggy, and the next instant the Giant, a good deal -smaller than usual, and dressed all in blue, with a golden horn in his -hand, stood on the plain. Unfortunately, however, his seven-leagued -boots still remained their usual size, and his beard was as long and -curly as ever, which gave him rather a strange appearance. - -“_Not_ quite so successful,” he remarked, glancing down at himself. -“However, I shall pass in a crowd, I daresay. And now we _must_ start. -The Pixies will go under the hills, which takes a quarter of the time, -but I daren’t take you that way for fear of spoiling our clothes. Come -along--fly on to my shoulder. That’s right! Shut your eyes and it won’t -seem so far.” And off he walked at a great pace over the hills. - -“_Do_ try to remember as we go what ‘Mazing’ means,” said Peggy. “I -wish I knew. It’s such a funny word!” - -“I can’t talk or think of anything at present,” said the Giant. “I’ve -got to try and find my way, and it’s no easy matter, I can assure you.” -And a long silence ensued. - -“Aren’t we there _yet_?” asked Peggy at last, after they had been -travelling for over a quarter of an hour. She opened her eyes as she -spoke, and then nearly fell off the Giant’s shoulder with astonishment. - -For the brown hills had quite disappeared, and in their place -a dazzling white country spread around. And a country filled -with--_could_ it be? Peggy rubbed her eyes, and stared again. Yes. -Filled with _snowmen_! Snowmen towering up in all directions, one -behind the other, hundreds and hundreds of them, and all exactly like -the one Mother and Peggy had made in the garden last winter, with coals -for eyes, and pipes in their mouths! - -“Yes, I thought you’d be surprised!” said the Giant, stopping wearily. -“I was. We’ve missed our way somehow, I believe, and it would really -have been better if we _had_ gone under the hills after all. This white -country gets on my nerves. I _must_ have a rest!” - -He propped himself up against one of the snowmen as he spoke, and -mopped his face with his red pocket-handkerchief. “Do fly up fairly -high and see if there’s any way out of this,” he implored in an -exhausted voice. “I’ve been walking in and out between the wretched -things for _ages_. There seems no end to them!” - -[Illustration: Peggy didn’t mean to do another picture of the fifth -Adventure, but Mother particularly wanted one of the Pixies, so she -had to do this, as the Ball-room one was too difficult to do. The -Pixies are just shouting out, “This is Mazing, this is!” and Peggy is -trying to catch two of them. You can see how tired and giddy the Giant -must have got with wandering about amongst so many Snowmen. He is -just wiping his face with his red handkerchief. Peggy made herself so -=very= ugly by mistake, and didn’t know how to change it.] - -Peggy fluttered up and looked North, South, East and West, but alas, -there was nothing but hosts and hosts of snowmen in all directions. - -“I believe it’s a trick of those nasty Pixies!” said the Giant angrily -when she returned. “There--look! Wasn’t that one of them?” and he -pointed behind her. - -Peggy wheeled round, just in time to see a mischievous Pixie face -peeping from behind a snowman. - -“Catch him!” cried the Giant, making a grab and missing. “Oh, now -he’s over there!” as another face peeped at them from quite another -direction. - -“This is Mazing, this is,” said a tiny, chuckling voice, and a third -Pixie appeared round another snowman, and disappeared again just as -Peggy thought she had really got him. - -“Oh dear!” said the Giant, stopping in dismay. “Don’t you remember you -said you wished you knew what Mazing was? I never took in that it was a -wish till this moment!” - -“Why, so I did!” said Peggy. “Gracious me, what a silly game! and that -makes four wishes gone, too. There, _now_ I’ve got him!” and she made a -wild dash to the right, but only succeeded in catching a pointed cap, -and falling full length in the wet snow. - -“This is Mazing, this is!” cried out about twenty giggling voices at -once, and heads poked out from behind the snowmen in all directions. - -“Oh, I can’t stand this any longer,” said Peggy. “I wish we were at -that party! _Any_ of the other amusements would be better than this -one!” - -At once the snowmen all toppled over and melted in a trice, and Peggy -and the Giant found themselves standing in a great Purple Cave full of -rosy light. - -All around them danced a multitude of Gnomes, Brownies, Sprites, and -every other kind of unusual creature; and a large company of Pixies in -fancy dress, who had been playing leap-frog in a corner, came pushing -their way through the crowd. - -“Oh, you _are_ late!” they cried. “You’ve been Mazing, haven’t you?” -and they all burst into a great roar of laughter. - -“You’re not being a bit funny,” said the Giant, turning his back on -them, and “Here come the Naiads!” he whispered to Peggy. “They only -attend the _best_ parties,” and he pointed towards some beautiful tall -ladies in green and blue with water lilies in their hair, who were -walking up the cave towards them, followed by a crowd of handsome -Dryads in brown and yellow. - -“Come and play at Flitting,” said one of them, taking Peggy’s and the -Giant’s hands. “Those bad-mannered creatures will improve if you take -no notice of them. We’ll show you how to play,” and up to the ceiling -they all went, and everyone else after them. - -Peggy never forgot that wonderful night. When she was tired with -darting round the cavern walls, or hunting for diamonds in the dark, -she skated with a company of very polite Trolls in a beautiful inner -cavern, whose walls were a gleaming mass of rubies. And then the -Pixies, who by this time had remembered their manners, crowned her -Queen of the Revels with great pomp, and led her off to partake of -light refreshments. - -These were set out in a great black and yellow cavern which was -entirely lighted by glow-worms, cleverly concealed in full-blown yellow -roses hung from the roof. Peggy was put at the head of the table with -the Giant by her side, and big sugar sweets of every shape and kind -were piled upon their plates. - -But no sooner had they finished half their helpings than a sudden shout -of “Back to work!” “Back to work!” sounded from all sides. - -The Naiads and Dryads immediately disappeared in a pale green mist, -the Sprites changed into blue smoke, and the next instant Peggy found -herself, with hundreds of silent, hardworking Pixies, digging with -pickaxes in the sides of a cold dark rock, by the light of a solitary -glow-worm! - -The Giant, with his blue sleeves rolled up, was working diligently by -her side. - -“Oh, what _are_ we doing? Where’s the party gone?” cried Peggy in great -distress. - -“Over,” said the Giant without stopping; and at every blow of his axe -great pieces of gold fell out of the rock. “_Now_ we’ve got to work!” - -“Oh, but this _is_ dull,” said Peggy. “And I know Nannie wouldn’t like -me to get hot with my bad cold,” she went on primly, quite forgetting -that she had not thought of that at all, during the games just now. -Then seeing the Giant was busily knocking some emeralds out of the rock -without taking any notice of what she said, “Oh, I hate the horrid -place; I wish I was back in bed!” she went on crossly, just to see -whether he’d answer that or not, and throwing her pickaxe down with a -crash.... - -“But you _are_, Miss Peggy,” said Nurse’s voice soothingly, and Peggy -found herself once more in the nursery, with the blankets and sheets -all tumbling off in a most uncomfortable way. “There, that’s better! -Now you must try and go to sleep again. The hot-water bottle’s just -tumbled out. I expect that’s what woke you.” - -“Why, Nannie, I didn’t _really_ mean to come back so soon!” said Peggy. -“I never thanked them for my nice time, or anything!” - -“You’ve been dreaming you were at the party next door,” said Nurse. -“That’s because you heard the music, I expect. Now you mustn’t talk any -longer. To-morrow night Mother will be home!” - -“Why, so she will! Good-night, Giant dear,” said Peggy, and turning -over fell sound asleep at once. - -“She must be feverish, I’m afraid, yet she _looks_ quite well,” said -Nurse rather uneasily, stealing softly from the room. - -And all night long on Peggy’s thumb the green stone winked and twinkled -at the fire. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -THE LAST ADVENTURE - - -“I wish it wasn’t such a wet day,” said Peggy, lying full length in the -loft amongst the hay, and looking through the cobwebby little window at -the driving rain. - -“Why, what does the rain matter?” asked the Giant, coming through the -roof, and lying down in the hay, too, with both legs dangling out of -the trap-door. And the sunshine poured through the hole he had made, -and a big patch of blue sky gleamed above it. - -“Oh dear!” said Peggy, “I never noticed I had the Ring on! What waste -of a wish! The garden boy said it was going to clear in half an hour -anyway. Nannie thinks I’m in the garden,” she went on, “but I ran up -here out of the rain. Hadn’t we better go out again now it’s stopped?” - -“Oh, _do_ let’s stop here for a bit,” said the Giant. “I’m so stiff -from yesterday’s digging. I stayed on and did a lot after you’d gone. -Look here,” and he pulled handfuls of glittering red and green stones -out of his pocket. - -“I didn’t mean to go off suddenly like that,” said Peggy rather -shamefacedly. “I hope you thanked the Pixies for us both?” - -“Oh yes, that was all right,” said the Giant, scooping together all -the hay within reach and making it into a pillow for his head. “By the -way,” he went on lazily, staring up at the dusty beams, “do you realise -this is our last adventure?” - -“Why, so it is!” said Peggy with a gasp. “Oh, how _awful_! I can’t bear -to think I shan’t see you again,” and she caught hold of the Giant’s -little finger and hugged it hard. “What _shall_ I do without you?” - -“Well, you must think of something very exciting indeed for our last -day,” said the Giant. “And don’t go wasting wishes like you’ve been -doing lately. It spoils all the fun.” - -“The thing that puzzles me,” said Peggy, looking at her Ring as it -gleamed and sparkled in that dark place, “is how much the Ring does, -and how much you do? And why sometimes it doesn’t work till it’s -turned, and why you can’t always bring me back without my having to use -up a wish, and where you live when you’re not here, and----” - -“Well, of all the inquisitive children you absolutely take the cake!” -said the Giant. “I don’t think I’ve been asked so many questions for -the last five hundred years at least. I haven’t the slightest intention -of answering one of them. Instead of being grateful for having so many -wishes at a time, you begin grumbling----” - -“O Giant, darling, I didn’t _mean_ to grumble!” cried Peggy. “I was -only _wondering_. But I won’t ask any more questions, I promise you, -if you’ll only think of some lovely exciting adventure for to-day. You -think of such _beautiful_ things always,” she added. - -“Oh, that’s all very well!” said the Giant, but his voice sounded -rather pleased. “Well now, let me see. This takes some thinking. What -_was_ it that that child and I did in 1350 or thereabouts? Oh yes, I -remember. She wished all her toys to come alive. How would you like -that?” - -“_Perhaps_ it would be rather fun,” said Peggy--and she wished it, but -in rather a doubtful voice. “You’re sure it will be really exciting?” -she asked.... - -“Listen to all that trampling,” said the Giant in reply, nibbling at a -straw and blinking at the rafters. - -Peggy raced to the loft door and looked down into the yard below, where -an extraordinary sight met her eyes. For the whole place had suddenly -become packed from end to end with every kind of animal, bird and -insect, all rushing to and fro in the greatest state of excitement. - -“Oh, _do_ look down!” Peggy implored the Giant. “Where _can_ they all -have come from? There’s a camel, I’m sure. Oh, and there’s a lion going -right off into the rose bed! What _will_ John say? And there’s a funny -old man in a long coat running about amongst them all! Who _can_ he be?” - -“Noah,” answered the Giant, “and it’s all the animals from your Noah’s -Ark, of course. My word, you’ll have a lively time getting ’em in -again! You’d better go down, I think.” - -Peggy ran down the steps, and Noah at once bustled up to her in a great -state of mind. - -“This coat of mine hampers me dreadfully,” he panted. “Do you think you -could restore any kind of order? The tigers have got into the kitchen -garden, and a dromedary and one, if not _both_, the leopards, have gone -down the high road towards the village!” - -“Giant, Giant, come and help!” shouted Peggy, and the next moment the -Giant was standing by her side, shaking pieces of hay off himself, -which the few remaining animals immediately ate. - -“He wants us to drive them up into the nursery again,” said Peggy. “You -go that way,” and she pointed through the open gate into the kitchen -garden, “and I’ll go round the house and get them out of the flower -beds. And you,” to Noah, “run down the road after them!” - -“Chuck, chuck, chuck,” she went on to a pair of red storks strutting -to and fro in the perennial border, but they simply flew on to the top -of the house and stared down at her; whilst an elephant, standing in -the asparagus bed on the other side of the garden wall, chose at that -moment to trumpet loudly, and nearly startled Peggy out of her wits. - -“I don’t know how we’re to manage it!” she said at last to Noah, who -reappeared driving a bright blue pig and a dromedary up the road. “It’s -_no_ fun, is it? I only wish we could all go for a ride or something -exciting! How about that animal there?” and she pointed at a Giraffe -engaged at the moment in licking a red creeper off one side of the -house.... - -“Hold me tight!” said Noah very nervously, as they all three found -themselves on the Giraffe’s back and going at a brisk trot down the -back drive. “_Do_ hold me tight! I haven’t ridden for years.” - -“How lovely this is!” said Peggy, taking a firmer grip of Noah, who sat -in front, and looking back at the Giant. “Are you all right?” she asked. - -“At present I am,” he answered carefully, “though I really ought to -have been in front for the weight, I suppose. Hulloa! What’s he doing -now?” - -For the Giraffe had no sooner turned into the high road than he began -to proceed in a series of jumps, all four feet pressed close together, -and rising a good deal higher than the hedges at each effort. - -“Tell him to _stop_, Noah!” gasped Peggy. “You’re in front. Hurry up! -I’m shaken to bits.” - -“It’s no good,” moaned Noah. “I have, and he won’t listen. Oh, if we -only had some reins!” - -“You must _wish_ him to go slower,” said the Giant to Peggy in a faint -voice. “I shall die if this goes on! It’s all your fault for saying -‘or something exciting’ after your wish. I forgot to tell you how very -risky that was. Ah, thank you! That’s better,” for Peggy had wished, -and the Giraffe at once quieted down into a walk--in fact into such a -slow walk that it almost might have been called standing still. - -“Get on!” said Peggy, digging her heels into the Giraffe’s back--but he -went slower and slower still. - -“Oh dear, you’ll have to get off and push, I’m afraid,” she said to the -Giant. “We shall never get anywhere at all if you don’t. I’m not going -to waste another wish on the horrid old thing!” - -“All right,” said the Giant, getting off--but the more he pushed the -slower the Giraffe went. - -“Why, here we are at the village!” cried Peggy, as after half an -hour’s steady pushing they turned a corner and saw a row of cottages -stretching down the road on either side. “Now get on again,” she said -to the hot and tired Giant, “and we’ll ride grandly down to the shop -and buy a pennyworth of sweets!” - -“Who’s to buy them?” asked the Giant, wearily settling himself on the -Giraffe’s back again (it was quite easy to get on and off because the -creature really went so very slowly). “_I_ can’t. I only frighten -people.” - -“Noah will--won’t you, Noah?” asked Peggy coaxingly. “_I_ can’t, -because I’ve no pennies left at all!” - -“But I haven’t a farthing on me either,” said Noah uncomfortably. - -“Oh, never mind, have it entered!” said Peggy, pushing him off the -Giraffe’s back. “Run along; we shan’t move far from here before you -come back--and get acid drops if you can,” she added. - -Noah obediently crossed the road and walked into the shop; and about -one minute afterwards he reappeared, bearing two enormous bottles of -pear-drops under each arm. - -“Gracious me!” cried Peggy, jumping off the Giraffe, and followed by -the Giant. “How quick you’ve been! And that’s not a pennyworth!” - -“I know it isn’t,” said Noah. “But the woman _made_ me take them. I -asked her quite politely for a pennyworth, but instead of weighing -them out like anyone else would, she fell down behind the counter and -screamed, ‘Take anything you like, only go away!’ So I did. I chose -_all_ pear-drops because they’re my favourite sweets,” he added simply, -putting two into his mouth at once. - -“Oh you greedy!” cried Peggy. “Give us some at once! I’m very glad -nobody sees us,” she added, looking anxiously up and down the village -street; “they’d never believe the woman really _gave_ them to you.” - -And at that moment a perfect shout of delight rose up in the road -behind them, and Peggy, turning hastily round, saw a troup of Toys -rushing towards them! - -There were all the dolls she had ever had, all the people in every -Fairybook she had ever looked at, and all her wooden carts and horses. -There were all her Golliwogs and Teddy-bears, all the Ark animals -again, all the rest of Noah’s family (who had been lost for years), -all the dolls’ tea-sets, and even the big dolls’ house, and the -rocking-horse, and all the balls and tops, and ninepins, and whips, and -whistles, in fact every single thing that had ever lived in the Toy -Cupboard in the Nursery. - -“Found at last!” they screamed, dancing and leaping round Peggy. “Now -let’s play a game. _You_ choose!” - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE NICEST WISH OF ALL - - -As the Toys crowded round, filling the village street from end to -end, Peggy could tell in a moment that they were ready for any fun or -mischief she could possibly wish for; and her spirits rose higher and -higher. She threw all the pear-drops amongst them, and whilst they were -scrambling about picking them up--“I know!” she cried, as a lovely -thought struck her. “I wish that the village was our very own, and that -the Giant and I were King and Queen, with the shop for our palace!” - -“Hurrah!” shouted all the Toys. “Let’s turn the people out now!” and -the Dolls and Golliwogs leading the way, they rushed up to the doors of -the cottages, and banged on them with all their might. - -[Illustration: This is the way they rode through the Village in the -Sixth Adventure, and Peggy was very sorry there were not more people -looking out to see them. She is just asking Noah to get down and buy -a pennyworth of sweets. The girl with the fat face in the bedroom -window was the shopwoman’s daughter. She ran down the stairs and out -of the back door as fast as she could tear. You can see how slowly the -Giraffe was walking. Afterwards he played about just like all the other -Animals. The Giant was making that funny face because he felt shy. This -was the best Adventure.] - -“You mustn’t be rude to the people, remember!” cried Peggy. “Just ask -them to lend us the village for a little while, and we promise not to -hurt it. I expect they’ll understand.” - -Whether they did or not Peggy never found out, for after one glance out -of their windows, the people snatched up their babies, and, screaming -to the rest of their children to follow, they rushed out of the back -doors and down the fields and away over the hills as fast as their legs -could carry them. Peggy tried shouting to them that it was all right, -and that no one would hurt them, and the lions and tigers were very -anxious to run after them, and _make_ them see how silly they were; but -everyone else thought it better to begin playing at once, before the -men came back from work. - -Peggy and the Giant--who suddenly noticed that they were wearing -beautiful scarlet robes, and had heavy gold crowns on their heads--went -behind the counter in the little shop, and sold sweets to every Toy who -came to buy. And it was all more fun than words can say, especially -when the dolls, who wanted to play at housekeeping, came crowding in -asking for flour and sugar and rice and all sorts of things. - -The Giant, quite doubled up in such a small space, handed down the jars -and tins to Peggy, and she measured out all the things very carefully, -and put them into paper bags; whilst Noah and his family busied -themselves with getting tea ready in the back room. - -Outside, the Golliwogs and Teddy-bears, shouting and hallooing, led the -Ark animals to the pond to drink, or shut them up in the fields, or -harnessed them to the carts they found, and drove them to market--and -of course the animals simply _loved_ it. - -The rocking-horse got off his rockers, and was put in a real stable, -and given real hay to eat; and the dolls’ house was put alongside a -real house and had a creeper trained up it, and instead of the whole -of the front wall having to be undone before people could get in, the -little brown door opened and shut just like one in a real house does. - -As for the tops and ninepins, dominoes and other small fry, they just -spun and hopped up and down the road and in and out of the houses, not -really playing at anything, but enjoying it all as much as anyone. And -the pictures in the story-books took no notice of anybody, but went -for long walks in the woods, with their arms round each other’s necks, -gossiping. - -It really was the best adventure of the lot, Peggy and the Giant -agreed, as they sat by their door that afternoon, the Giant smoking and -reading a newspaper, and Peggy looking down the busy village street. -None of the villagers came back at all, and it really felt as if the -whole place was their very own. - -“Even that pump looks exciting, because it’s _ours_,” said Peggy, “and -if only Mother was home again everything would be _perfect_, wouldn’t -it?” - -“Well, why don’t you _wish_ she was coming?” said the Giant. “You’ve -got one more wish left still, and she’ll see you get home without any -help from me or the Ring either!” - -Peggy jumped to her feet and ran down the road. Why _hadn’t_ she -thought of it before? Round the corner she tore, away from everyone’s -sight, even the Giant’s, her heart beating fast. Then--“I wish Mummie -was coming now!” she said--and at once a little tiny speck appeared -far, far away on the white road.... - -And of course the speck turned into a motor, and of course Mother was -inside it.--And directly _that_ happened, the Ring flew right off -Peggy’s thumb and completely disappeared--goodness knows where. - -“And did you come to meet me!” said Mother, jumping out of the motor -and kissing Peggy dozens and dozens of times. “You _are_ a nice Pegtop! -Weren’t you frightened all by yourself on the road?” - -“O Mummie, this is _much_ the nicest wish of all,” gasped Peggy, as -Mother jumped in again with her in her arms, and they whizzed along -down the road. “Why!” as they passed through the village, “the Toys are -all gone and so is the Giant!” - -“You’ve not answered my question yet, my Peggums,” said Mother, -pressing her closer. - -“Of course I wasn’t frightened, Mummie!” said Peggy, burying her nose -in the bunch of violets pinned to Mother’s coat. “You see, I had my -Giant with me.” - -“Oh, had you?” said Mother, not looking at all surprised. “Then -_that’s_ all right! Good old Giant!” she added softly. - - * * * * * - -“It’s all perfectly _lovely_,” said Mother, that evening after tea, -when Peggy had finished telling her all the adventures from beginning -to end. “And I’m going to write them down for a book. It would be a -thousand pities if the Ring went to another little girl and she didn’t -know about putting it on her thumb. Think of the waste!” - -“Yes, and it’s so bad for the Giant, too,” said Peggy thoughtfully. -“I mean, him not being _used_ oftener. You see what mistakes he made -sometimes, darling old thing! I do think the book is a _splendid_ plan, -Mummie,” and she began to dance round and round the room. - -“And you shall do the pictures for it!” said Mother, dancing round the -room too. (She was _that_ sort of Mother.) - -“Oh, _do_ you think I could?” asked Peggy, stopping short. - -“Of course you could,” said Mother. “Why, you were there, and know -exactly what everything looked like. And I’ll help a little when you -want me. Let’s do a bit every day after tea till it’s done,” and she -rolled Peggy on the floor and hugged her. - -And so they did. - - -_Printed in Great Britain by M‘Farlane & Erskine, Edinburgh_ - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Underlined text is surrounded by equals signs: =underline=. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peggy's Giant, by M. D. Hillyard - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEGGY'S GIANT *** - -***** This file should be named 60475-0.txt or 60475-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/0/4/7/60475/ - -Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David E. 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