The Floating Prince and Other Fairy Tales/Derido; or, The Giant's Quilt
DERIDO; OR, THE GIANTS QUILT.
THERE was once a giant who had a patch-work quilt, and this is the way he got it:
One warm morning, the giant, whose name was Derido, was very tired, and laid down under a tree to take a nap. The tree was a palm-tree, and, having a great tuft of leaves at the top of a tall stem, it could not be expected to give enough shade for a full-sized giant; but Derido, when he laid down, put his head in the small spot of shade that the palm-leaves afforded, and as for the rest of his body, he did not care. After a while, the sun got higher and higher, and the spot of shade moved nearer and nearer the base of the tree, and poor Derido's upturned face was soon exposed to the full blaze of the fiery sun. But being very tired, he slept soundly, and knew nothing about either sunshine or shade.
Derido was a good, kind, honorable giant—not very old, but large for his age, and had been noted, from the time when he was a very little boy, no bigger than a horse, for being always ready to help other people. It was the exercise of this trait of his character that had made him so tired this warm morning.
For about a week, he had been absent from home on various errands of benevolence. Among other things, he conferred a great benefit upon the people of a certain country by bringing to justice an old sorceress, who, for many years, had been worrying and tormenting the whole population. When Derido heard of this, he resolved to have her punished, and so he caught her napping, one day, and took her to a friend of his, who was a magician, and had her turned into a sewing-woman, and compelled, for the rest of her life, to make shirts at the rate of two loaves of bread a piece, and if there were frills to the bosoms, a penny-roll extra. It must be admitted that this was very hard on the old witch, but she was so extremely malicious and depraved that she deserved the worst she could get.
When the giant had got through with this business, he had gone to the assistance of the king of a small country, who had but few soldiers, and whose dominions were invaded by a powerful king, with a large army. Derido arrived just as a battle was about to commence, and instantly saw that the little army had not a shadow of a chance.
So he went straight to the king of the small country, and asked to be made Head General of his forces. The king immediately consented, and put his army under command of the giant.
"But," said the king, "how will the enemy know you to be the Head General? I have no feathers or sashes or medals big enough for you."
"Never mind," said Derido; "when we get to work they will find out I'm General, without any sashes and feathers."
So, at the head of his little army, Derido marched right close down in front of the enemy. When the commanders of the large army saw that Derido was among their opponents, they began to change their minds about having a battle, and sent a flag of truce to him.
"Do you belong to this army?" asked the man who bore the flag.
"Oh! yes," said Derido, "I'm Head General."
The man then galloped back to his king, and reported. Directly he returned with his flag.
"His Majesty begs me to assure you that he has had a very pleasant journey through part of your king's dominions, and is sorry he can't stay longer, but pressing affairs call him immediately home."
"Oh! he mustn't go until I see him," said Derido. "Ask him to come over."
So the king of the invaders thought he had better come, and Derido said to him:
"I'm sorry to see you are in such a hurry to return. You surely cannot have got all you wanted of our king."
"Oh! yes, yes," said the other; "we only wanted a little trip—just a little trip."
"You're entirely too modest," said the giant. "Now, I'm pretty sure I know what you came for. You heard that our people had a great quantity of corn in the public granaries that they could neither use nor sell. I believe that you came to buy that corn, but you don't like to say so."
"Now I come to think of it, I do want some corn," said the king: "I'll take all you've got to spare. Just send it over to my camp, and I'll have the money ready. Good-day:" and he turned to go, but just happening to think of something, he came back, and said to Derido: "Is this a permanent situation that you've got?"
"Yes," said the giant; "whenever there's war, I'm Head General of this army."
"Good-day," said the king; "I don't know when I shall be able to get around this way again. Remember me to your king:" and off he went.
Every man of the invading army went home with a great bag of corn on his back, and when the inhabitants of the small kingdom saw a cart-load of gold dumped down into the public vaults, they were so delighted that they had a grand celebration, and all the children had holiday; all the toy and candy shops were declared free, and the boys and girls went in and took just what they liked best, and the king paid for it all.
On his way home from this kingdom, the giant had tired himself still more, but this time it was for his own gratification. Coming along by the sea-shore, he found a great anchor. Thinking it might be of use some day, he picked it up and hung it to his belt. Then it struck him that it would be a good idea to go a-fishing, and, accordingly, he stopped at a fishing village and bought about two miles of stout rope. He then walked some distance further on, to where the sea was very deep, and where it was a great place for whales. Going out on the top of a high promontory, and having tied his anchor to the end of the rope, he stood and watched for a whale to come up and blow. He soon saw one, about a mile and a half off, and whirling the anchor around his head, he let it fly, and it went clear out to the end of the rope and sunk into the sea, with the line right over the whale's back. The giant pulled in, ever so quick, hoping to hook his fish when he jerked the anchor up against him, but the old whale slipped from under the rope, and went swimming away, with as much of a smile on his face as it is possible for a whale to have. Poor Derido had to haul in his anchor, which was troublesome to do, for it continually caught on things at the bottom, and when he got it in at last, he determined that the next whale should not escape him so easily. He then broke off one of the flukes of the anchor, and bent the other one out straight, so that it and the shank were like one long piece of iron. When he had sharpened the arrow-headed end of the fluke, he had a first-rate harpoon—that is, for a person of his size. So he stood again and watched for a whale, and when one rose, he sent his harpoon whizzing through the air, and aimed it so truly that it went deep into the whale's fat side and hooked him tight. But the giant had a very hard time hauling him in. The whale was a good big one, and he struggled, and jerked, and pulled back, nearly hard enough to move a church; but Derido was a match for him. He went to work like a good fellow, and hauled in his rope, hand over hand, and there was nothing for the whale to do but to come too. When he got his fish into shallow water, Derido waded in, and, picking him up, slung him over his shoulder and carried him high and dry on shore, where he let him flop and roll until he got used to being out of the water. When the whale got thus far, he died.
It was afternoon by this time, and so the giant took his whale on his back, and having gathered up his fishing-cord and harpoon, he started for home. Derido lived in his mother's castle, and he thought that she would be very glad to see him bring home so much nice fish. But after he had walked about an hour or two, he began to think that he would not take his whale home.
"If I do," he said to himself, "I know just what will happen. There will be roast whale to-morrow, and cold whale the next day, and after that, whale-hash for a day or two more. No, I won't take it home; I'll give it to somebody who needs it more than we do."
He had not gone far before he saw a man standing on a high rock, with a stone in his hand, looking about him in every direction. The giant stopped and asked him what he was trying to do.
"Why," said the man, "perhaps a bird may fly by after a while, and if it does, I shall throw this stone at it, and if I hit it we shall have it for supper."
"We," said the giant, "who are we?"
"Why, myself, and my wife, and our five children," said the man; "who should we be but us?"
"Well, do you pretend to say that one of those small birds which fly about here will be enough supper for seven people?" asked Derido, putting down the whale.
"No; it won't be anything like enough, but we often have to put up with as little. The children eat all they can pick from a bird, and then my wife and I suck the bones."
"Upon my word," said the giant, "I shouldn't think any of you would get very fat on that sort of living. It is too bad that you should have such miserable fare, and so I will give you this whale that I have just caught. You can have some of it right away for your suppers, and if you cut the rest up and dry it, it will last your whole family for a year or two."
"People don't eat whale," said the man.
"How do you know?" asked the giant. "Did you ever hear of any one who had tasted it and didn't like it? Did you ever try it yourself? I should think a person as badly off as you would be glad to try whale-meat, before you say it's not eatable."
"I don't want to try it," said the man, looking about to see if he could find a bird. "People would laugh if they saw me cutting up a whale for food. But I'll tell you what I will do; I'll take the skin for a carpet for our best room. We haven't got any carpet on it."
"Not if I know it," said the giant, throwing his fish back on his shoulder, "no whale for you to-day, my friend." And he marched off, provoked that he had stopped to talk to such a blockhead of a man.
It soon became dark, and as the sky was cloudy, and there was no moon, it was very dark indeed. The giant had great difficulty in keeping on his journey, for he could not see a step before him. Directly he walked into a river, and wet his legs badly, and as he floundered across, he felt very much inclined to throw the whale away, for he had trouble enough in getting along without having to carry that heavy fish. But he did hate to waste anything, and so he carried it on, wondering to what use he could put it. Directly a thought struck him.
"The old thing is full of oil," said he to himself, "and I have a great mind to light it."
No sooner said than done. He had just run against a tall young tree, so he drew his sword and cut it down, and trimming off the top, he ran the trunk into the whale's mouth, and down into its body, so as to make a handle. Then he cut off the tail, and the oil came bubbling out. Taking from his pocket a flint and steel and some tinder, he lighted some dry leaves, made a blaze, and set fire to the tail-end of the whale. The oil blazed quite lively, as the giant held it up by the trunk of the tree, and soon it was burning so brightly that he could see just as well as he wanted to. Shouldering his great torch, he marched off gayly. The whale burnt fiercer and fiercer, the lower the flame got down, and soon the whole country around the giant, as he strode along, was as bright as day. The cocks commenced to crow, the birds to sing, and the grasshoppers and beetles got up and began to look for their breakfasts. As to the owls and nighthawks, they all went to bed, and the giant walked on with the whale over his shoulder, blazing away like a young volcano. When daylight appeared, the whale was nearly all burned up, and he threw it away, very glad that he had been able to make such a good use of it. As the sun rose, the clouds passed away, and everything was bright and lovely. So when the giant reached the palm-tree that we mentioned before, he sat down and ate a few bushels of crackers he had in his pocket, and then thought he would take a nap. This place was dry, and the sun was warm; so he put his head in the shade and went to sleep; and the shade had moved and his face had been in the sunshine for about an hour, when a princess came riding by.
Her name was Falema, and she was very unhappy. She was unhappy because she was going to be married in a day or two. She was not grieving because she did not love the young king, Gantalor, to whom she was engaged, but because the wedding was to come off before she was ready. The young king was a very fine fellow, but he was nearly always at war. In a day or two he was to have a short peace, and he wanted to get married before he had to go to war again. So Falema's father had settled it that the wedding was to come off the day that Gantalor's peace should commence. Falema was not ready for this great affair. There had been such short notice, that only part of her dresses were made up, and it distressed her greatly to think that she would not make a proper appearance in her husband's palace, if she should be married so soon. So she was unhappy, and had gone out that morning on her pony, attended by her ladies and a few slaves, to see if the fresh air would do her good. When she suddenly came upon the giant lying under the tree, she was frightened, but some of her people told her it was Derido, and that he would hurt nobody. So then she began to pity him, lying there with his face all exposed to the sun.
"It's dreadful," said she. "He will get freckled."
So she took out her handkerchief, and all her ladies took out their handkerchiefs, and they spread them over such parts of the giant's face as they could reach; but they did not begin to cover it. Then they tried their sun-umbrellas, but they did not amount to very much, either.
"If he had his head over there, near the root of that tree," said one of the ladies, "he would be all right."
"Well, let's wake him up," said the Princess, "and make him move."
So they pushed at him, and thumped at him, the Princess, ladies, slaves, and all, but they did not disturb him in the least.
One of the slaves proposed to stick him a little with their spears, but the Princess would not allow that.
"Well," said another of the ladies, "we can't move him, and we can't move the tree, so we had better go on and let him alone."
"I don't know about moving the tree," said the Princes. "Here, you slaves, just take your swords, and cut down that palm-tree, and be very careful it don't fall on the giant."
So the slaves took their swords, and cut down the tree, and, as they were very careful, it did not fall on the giant.
Then, by the Princess's orders, they cut about half of the trunk off, and the upper part, with the broad-spreading leaves above, looked very much like an enormous umbrella.
"Now stick it up somewhere, near him," said the Princess, "so that it will shade his head."
They tried it in several places, but nowhere would it shade his whole face; so one of the ladies suggested that they should stick the tree into his mouth, which was stretched open quite wide enough for the purpose.
This suggestion being approved of, the slaves climbed up and put it into his mouth, and it stood up nicely and shaded his whole face. Then the Princess and her retinue rode off.
After a little while, the giant began to dream that he was cutting a new tooth. It made him uneasy, and he soon awoke. When he saw the upper part of a palm-tree sticking out of his mouth, he was at first afraid that he had swallowed the roots, and the rest of it, but he soon found that it was not so. He took it out, and sat up; and then he saw, at a distance, the Princess and her party returning.
So he imagined that they had something to do with the matter, and he laid down quickly, and put the palm umbrella back in his mouth, and made believe to be asleep.
When the Princess came up, she said: "Well! if the poor giant isn't asleep yet I am glad he is more comfortable than he was."
And then she was going to ride away, but the giant put out his hand, and caught her up in it, horse and all.
She was very much frightened at this, and screamed, and all her people ran away; but the giant sat up, and looked so good-humored, and spoke so kindly, that the Princess soon became quieted, and the people came back and stood near her.
Derido put the Princess, horse and all, on his knee, and she smoothed her hair down, and fixed her ribbons straight, and began to talk to her big acquaintance.
She told him how she had had the palm-tree stuck up in his mouth, and they both laughed very much, and the giant was much obliged. It must have been comical to hear them laughing, for there was about as much difference in their voices, as there is between a cherry-stone and a prize pumpkin. Then Falema, who loved dearly to talk, went on, and told the giant why she was unhappy.
"That's too bad," said Derido. "And he won't wait until your dresses are finished, eh? How many have you got done?"
"Only about forty," said the Princess, "and there never was anybody married out of our family with less than a hundred new dresses."
"And how long would it take to finish them all?" asked the giant.
"Oh! it would take three or four days more, for I've got all the seamstresses in the kingdom, and they work as hard as ever they can, and they can't do any more, unless they work at night, and you know I won't allow that."
"Certainly not," said Derido. "Poor things, it would kill them, sooner or later. I will tell you what I will do for a kind young lady like you. You say that the young King Gantalor is only anxious to have the wedding so soon because his peace is to commence in a day or two?"
"That's it," said Falema. "If this last war of his had continued a little longer, I should have been ready."
"Well now," said the giant, "this is what I will do: I will go to-morrow, and make war against him, and I'll fight him until your dresses are done."
"O, you dear, good giant!" cried Falema. "But you mustn't kill or wound him."
"I'll not hurt a hair of his head," said Derido. "But how shall I know when your dresses are done?"
"Oh! I will send you some of the pieces that are left," replied the Princess, "and then you may be sure that they are done; for as long as dresses are making, the pieces are always wanted for covering cord and for little gores, and such things."
"Certainly," said the giant, "and to shrivel up for trimmings."
"Shrivel up!" said the Princess, laughing, "you mean flute."
"Perhaps I do," said Derido. "But I must go now, and you must not forget to send me the pieces when all is ready."
So the Princess was put down, and she galloped away home with the good news, and that day she treated all her seamstresses to wine and cake, and a linsey-woolsey short-gown a piece.
Early the next morning, the giant appeared before the palace of Gantalor, where his army was all drawn up, ready to be dismissed for a short furlough. The royal treasurer was there, with his money-bags, to pay them off, and the soldiers were just going to stack their spears in the courtyard.
"Halloo!" said the giant; "what's up now?"
"Oh! you see," said the young king, "we are about to have a short peace, and my men are going home for a while."
"That's bad," said Derido, "for I came here to make war on you."
"Is that so?" said Gantalor; and then, turning to his army, he shouted: "Put away those money-bags! 'Tention battalions! Shoulder spears! By the right flank, wheel! Forward, march!" And springing on his horse, he put himself at the head of his army.
"It seems to me that you are in an awful hurry," said Derido. "This is no place to fight, but I know of a splendid battle-ground, and I will show you where it is."
So the giant led the way, and Gantalor and his whole army went after him, to the good place for a battle that he had spoken of. After marching a long time, Gantalor called out:
"Halloo there, Derido! I should think that by this time we had gone far enough."
"Oh! no," replied the giant, "we havn't got there yet Don't be impatient. It's an excellent place that I am taking you to, and it's a great deal better to do things right, while you are about it."
"Oh! yes," said the king, who was very fair in all his dealings, "certainly, I want to have things all right, while we are about them."
So they marched on until they came to a beautiful level plain and the giant said that was the place, and Gantalor agreed that it was a very good place indeed for a battle. Then the giant chose his position, and the king chose his, and then it was night, and the giant said they would begin to go to work early in the morning. The king was all ready to fight right away, but the giant did not approve of night battles, and so they all encamped until morning.
Early the next day the young king arose, and the first thing he saw was the giant hard at work carrying great rocks, and piling them up in a line on the place he had chosen.
"Halloo!" cried Gantalor, "what are you doing there?"
"Making a fort," said the giant.
"O bother!" cried the king; "we don't want a fort. It will take ever so long to build one."
"It's all very well for you folks to talk that way," said Derido. "There are thousands of you, and only one of me. What do you suppose I should do if you were to get around in my rear?"
"That's so," said the king. "I suppose you must have a fort. But hurry up with it."
The giant went to work, and spent the whole morning piling rocks; and Gantalor, supposing that his intended father-in-law might think it strange that he was not on hand on the wedding-day, wrote and sent him a letter, explaining why the ceremony would have to be postponed for a little while. After dinner the young king went out to see how the giant was coming on, and he found that he was not half done.
"Halloo!" cried he; "how long are you going to keep me waiting here? I thought you'd be done by this time."
"It's very easy to talk," said the giant, "but if you really felt in such a hurry, as you say you do, you would send some of those lazy soldiers of yours to help me."
"That's so," said Gantalor. "Here, you lazy soldiers, every one of you take a spade and help this giant build his fort. We'll never have a battle if we go on this way."
Then all the soldiers took spades, and they went to work to help the giant, and by night the fort was done.
It was a fine, large, high fort, and the spaces between the rocks were all nicely filled in with earth and smoothed over. By the time it was done, night came on, and they all encamped and slept well till morning. Early the next day. the young king got up, and saw the giant walking around the outside of his fort.
"Why don't you get in, and let us begin?" cried Gantalor. "That's a good fort you've got now."
"Yes," said Derido. "When it gets a deep ditch around it, it will be as good a fort as I ever saw."
"Ditch!" cried the enraged young king. "I don't know what it is you will want next! I'm not going to wait here until you make a ditch."
"Why, of course I must have a ditch," cried the giant, loud enough to be heard a mile or two. "Didn't you say we were going to have this thing all right, while we were about it? Just answer me that, if you please! And I'd like to know what's to hinder your soldiers from walking right up to my fort, in the night while I'm asleep, and climbing over, if I haven't a ditch!"
"Well," said Gantalor, "I suppose you ought to have a ditch. Here, you lazy soldiers, take every one of you a spade, and dig the giant a ditch around his fort, and don't be any longer about it than you can help."
So they all went to work, and dug the ditch, and that took until afternoon; and then a canal had to be made, nearly a mile long, to bring water from the river to fill the ditch, and then it was night, and they all slept well until morning.
Very early indeed, the giant got up, and smoothed over a large patch of soft earth, right in the middle of his fort, and taking a great sharp-pointed stick, he wrote on the ground, in huge letters:
"GONE FOR PROVISIONS—BACK SOON."
Then he stepped over the wall of his fort, ditch and all, and ran home as fast as he could go. When he reached his mother's castle, it was breakfast-time, and he told her his adventures, and she laughed heartily over them, and they had such a pleasant time at the table that they each drank two tubs of coffee, whereas they generally took one. During the morning the giant's mother fixed
him up a great basket of provisions, containing seventeen barrels of flour, four of bran flour, nine hundred hams, forty bushels of crackers, one hundred pounds of cheese, a thousand boxes of sardines, one hundred dozen lemons, a hundred pounds of sugar, a thousand pounds of dried beef, ten firkins of butter, a thousand bottles of pickles, and ever so many other things that she thought he might want, if the siege held out for a few days.
These things were tolerably heavy of course, and Derido did not make very good time going back. It was sunset before he saw his fort in the distance.
In the morning of that day, not long after the giant had left, the king had got up early, and arranged his troops for the battle. As the giant was not to be seen, they thought, of course, that he was sheltering himself behind his fortifications. So, Gantalor, who was a splendid soldier, drew his men up in line, and put them into position, and marched them here, and marched them there, and took possession of certain positions to the right, and took possession of other positions to the left, and held some of his men in reserve, and put others in the advance, and fixed up tents for hospitals, and sent his portable bridges to the front, and by dinner-time every thing was ready for the grand attack, even to the slight intrenchment necessary to protect certain portions of the army from the giant's missiles, After a hurried dinner, the grand charge was sounded, and the soldiers rushed forward, and they bridged the ditch, and crossed the bridges, and stormed the walls, and waved their flags, and shouted, "Victory!" and jumped down into the inside, and found written there:
"GONE FOR PROVISIONS—BACK SOON."
You would better believe that when King Gantalor saw this, he was angry. For a half hour or so, he was so angry that he did not know what to do with himself, but then he cooled down, and remembering that Derido would certainly keep his word, and come back, he drew off his men, and resolved to attack the giant as soon as he returned, and nothing was to be allowed to prevent.
When Derido got tolerably near the fort, he saw that it had been attacked, and supposing that Gantalor would be mad enough when he found it empty, he thought he had better rest a little; and so he did. and did not reach his fort until after dark, when the king and all his forces had gone to bed.
Before daylight the next morning, Gantalor had his men all in position, and when the giant awoke and stood up, Gantalor shouted to him: "Look out there! We're going to begin! No more fooling now! Bridges to the front! Stormers, forward, march! Spearmen, ready, aim, fire!"
And instantly the men with the portable bridges ran down to the ditch, and the storming parties followed them, and the spearmen sent their weapons flying through the air. Then the men with bows aimed their arrows at the giant, and those with catapults sent rocks whizzing round his head, and he felt like a boy in a hornet's nest.
He had hardly expected they would commence so soon, and he did not know what to do. As for really fighting them, he had determined not to do that, or he could have drawn his great sword, and chopped the whole army up fine, in about three-quarters of an hour. The stones, and arrows, and spears came thicker and thicker. Numbers of soldiers had crossed the ditch, and were already on top of the walls, and they could take such good aim from their new positions, that several missiles had already struck Derido in the face. A spear hit him on the side of the nose.
"There!" he cried. "If that nasty thing had gone in my eye, it would have made me mad."
He had provided himself with no ammunition whatever, and now that the fighting was getting to be at such close quarters, he looked for something with which to defend himself. He was so big that it was of no use to try to get behind anything. As he looked around, he saw his pickle-jars, and, breaking a number of them, he commenced hurling handfuls of pickles at his assailants. When a pickle hit a man in the face, the man howled, I can tell you; and, for a while, Derido kept the enemy back with these sour missiles. But a thousand jars of pickles will not last a giant long, when he uses them in that way, and the supply was soon exhausted. And now the soldiers were coming in on all sides. Gantalor was on the walls, shouting to his men and waving his sword above his head, and Derido was hit by something or other every moment, and as the men were nearer, the hits were harder. There was nothing for him to throw, but great hard things, which might kill people; and so, making a very wry face, Derido ran to the rear-wall, made a skip right over it and the ditch, and evacuated the fort.
What a shout the soldiers then set up!
Gantalor waved his hat and his sword, and if he had had more hands, he would have waved his coat and his boots, and he shouted: "Victory! victory!"
And all the soldiers shouted "Victory!" till they were hoarse. The excitement was so great, that every man in the army rushed pell-mell into the fort, even the reserve corps and those left in charge of the hospital-tents.
As for the giant, he sat down on the ground outside, and picked the arrows out of his clothes.
When the enthusiasm had somewhat subsided, Gantalor ordered the seventeen barrels of flour to be piled up, end on end, until they made a high column, and then he got on the top of them, and summoned the giant to deliver himself up.
"Not to-day, if you please," said Derido; "I've only changed my base. Now then," he cried, "just let me see any of you fellows come out of that fort. You're all my prisoners, every man of you!" And he jumped up, and drew his sword, and commenced rushing around the outside of the ditch, chopping his sword into the ground, and whirling it over his head in such a terrible way, that Gantalor got down off the flour-barrels in a hurry, and the soldiers crouched down behind the walls, as close as they could get. Not one of them would have dared to climb over the walls while that terrible giant was slashing his great sword about in that way. When Derido got tired of this exercise, he sat down near the fort and began throwing great stones across it, just grazing the tops of the walls. As all the stones went clear over, they hurt nobody, but if any one had been on top of the walls, it would have been bad for that person. The giant was a good shot with a stone or young rock, and every now and then he made one just scratch the top of the earthworks, causing the dirt and gravel to fly like hailstones.
Gantalor and his army began to think that they had got themselves into a bad fix. It was impossible to get over those walls (there was no entrance-way) while the giant was hurling stone after stone in that style, and all their stores, and provisions, and spare arms were outside, in the camp.
The giant amused himself in this way for quite a long time, but at last, while turning round, and reaching back for a big stone, he saw a man on horseback riding toward him as fast as he could come. As soon as the man reached him, he handed Derido a big bag, filled with the pieces that were left of the Princess's dresses.
The moment the giant saw the pieces in the bag, he sprang to his feet, jerked out of his pocket a great white handkerchief, as big as the mainsail of a ship, and sticking his sword into it, he waved it round his head, shouting at the top of his voice:
"I surrender! I surrender!"
Gantalor and his men stood up in amazement at the strange sight of the giant surrendering just when he had the best of them; but they were still more amazed when Derido stepped over the wall, right into their midst, and shouted to the king, while still frantically waving his white flag over his head:
"Go home, Gantalor, and marry your princess! Give her my love, and tell her to teach you the value of a peaceful life. If there are any battles to be fought, let me know, and I'll do your fighting for you. As for you, soldiers, you can have my provisions; I shan't need them. I'm going home. The war's over."
With these words, he jumped over the walls, and strode off home as fast as he could go, his white flag still fluttering over his shoulder.
Gantalor looked after him for a few minutes, and then he said:
"If there is a lunatic asylum in the country big enough, that giant ought to be put in it!"
Then he gave orders to pack up and march home. As he was watching the men break up their camp, he said:
"A war with the giant has one good thing about it. Look at these hospital-tents; they haven't been needed at all."
When the young king reached his palace, he left his men there, and, with a few followers, he went straight on to Falema's father's kingdom.
When he came near the royal residence, there, on the balcony, he saw the princess, dressed in a lovely gown of pink chenille; and behind her, in a row, all her seamstresses, in their nice new linsey-woolsey short-gowns, eating calves-foot jelly with golden spoons, to refresh themselves after their hard labors.
The next day, the young King Gantalor and the Princess Falema were married, and she led him such a happy life, that he never cared to go to war again. And, strange to say, he found that when he did not want to fight anybody, nobody seemed to want to fight him. The officers of his army came to the wedding, and each of them the next day married one of the princess's seamstresses, and each couple had a house and garden given them, and they lived happily, and got very fat. The common soldiers, married anybody that would have them, just like other people, and they each had a house and garden given them, and lived as happily, and got just as fat as the officers.
As for the giant, he took the pieces of the princess's dresses home to his mother, who made him a patchwork quilt out of them, and he slept under it for a long time; but I think it must be entirely worn out now.