Tales of Giants from Brazil | Page 8

of cat, sheep, monkeys and everything else dancing to the gay
music. If the giant king had known how to dance he would have danced
himself, but it was fortunate for the people of the earth that he did not
know how. If he had, there is no knowing what might have happened to
the earth.
As it was, he took the little band into his daughter's palace where she
sat surrounded by her servants. Her lovely face was as sad as sad could
be. When she saw the funny sight her expression changed. The happy
smile which the king of the land of giants had always wanted to see
played about her beautiful lips. A gay laugh was heard for the first time
in all her life. The king of the land of giants was so happy that he grew
a league in height and nobody knows how much he gained in weight.
"You shall have half my kingdom," he said to the boy, "just as I
promised if any one made my daughter laugh."
The boy from that time on reigned over half of the kingdom of giants as
prince of the land. He never had the least bit of difficulty in preserving
his authority, for the biggest giants would at once obey his slightest
request if he played on his violin to them. The beasts stayed in the land
of the giants so long that they grew into giant beasts, but the boy and
his violin always remained just as they were when they entered the
land.

IV

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS
Long ago there was a king who was very ill. He wanted a hare killed to
make him some broth. His only son, the prince, set out to find one. As
the prince walked along the path to the forest a pretty little hare ran out
of the hedge and crossed his path. He at once started in pursuit. The
hare was a very swift runner. The prince followed her into the deep
forest. Suddenly the hare ran into a hole in the ground. The prince kept
in sight of her and soon found to his dismay that he was in a big cave.
At the very rear of the cave there was the most enormous giant he had
ever seen in his life.
The prince was terribly frightened. "Oh, ho!" said the giant in such a
deep savage voice that the cave echoed and re-echoed with his words.
"You thought you'd catch my little hare, did you? Well, I've caught you
instead!"
The giant seized the prince in one of his enormous hands and tossed
him lightly into a box at one end of the cave. He put the cover on the
box and locked it down with a big key. The prince could get only a tiny
bit of air through a little hole in the top, and he thought that he never
could live. Hours passed. Sometimes the prince slept, but more often he
lay there thinking about his sick father and what he could ever do to get
out of the box and back once more to his father's side.
Suddenly he heard the key turn in the lock. The cover was lifted, and he
saw standing before him the most beautiful maiden he had ever seen or
dreamed of. "I am the hare you followed into the cave," said she with a
smile. "I am an enchanted princess and, though I have to take the form
of a hare in the daytime, at night I am free to resume my own shape.
You got into this trouble following me into the cave and I am so sorry
for you that I am going to let you out."
[Illustration: He saw standing before him the most beautiful maiden he
had ever dreamed of]
"You are so beautiful that I could stay here for ever and gaze into your
lovely eyes," said the prince.

"You would see only a hare in the daytime," replied the princess. "It is
not always night. Besides, the giant may return at any moment. He just
went out on a hunting trip because he thought that you would not make
a sufficiently big supper for him. Don't be foolish. I'll show you the
way out of the cave and then you must hurry home as fast as possible."
The prince thanked her for all her great kindness to him and acted upon
her advice. He went home by the nearest path, but when he reached the
palace his father was already dead. The palace was wrapped in
mourning.
The prince was so overcome with grief that he felt that he could not
keep on living in the palace. After his father's funeral he went away as
a wanderer.