صفحة 163 من 626

The giant said: 'If you are such a valiant fellow, come with me

into our cavern and spend the night with us.' The little tailor

was willing, and followed him. When they went into the cave,

other giants were sitting there by the fire, and each of them had

a roasted sheep in his hand and was eating it. The little tailor

looked round and thought: 'It is much more spacious here than in

my workshop.' The giant showed him a bed, and said he was to lie

down in it and sleep. The bed, however, was too big for the

little tailor; he did not lie down in it, but crept into a

corner. When it was midnight, and the giant thought that the

little tailor was lying in a sound sleep, he got up, took a great

iron bar, cut through the bed with one blow, and thought he had

finished off the grasshopper for good. With the earliest dawn the

giants went into the forest, and had quite forgotten the little

tailor, when all at once he walked up to them quite merrily and

boldly.