Ting-a-ling | Page 7

for if she had, she would have ruined the beautiful curls which stood out so nicely on each side. Ting-a-ling implored her to be quiet, and told her that the Giant had come to assist her, and that they wanted to know where the Prince was confined.
"I will tell you! I will show you!" cried the Princess quickly, and, jumping up, she ran to the window with Ting-a-ling still at her ear. "O you good giant," she cried, "are you there? If you will take me, I will show you the tower, the cruel tower, where my Prince is confined."
"Fear not!" said the good Giant. "Fear not I soon will release him. Let me take you in my hands, and do you show me where to go."
"Are you sure you can hold me?" said the Princess, standing timidly upon the edge of the window.
"I guess so," said the Giant. "Just get into my hands."
And, taking her down gently, he set her on his arm, and then he took Ting-a-ling from her hair, and placed him on the tip of his thumb. Thus they proceeded to the Tower of Tears.
"Here is the place," said the Princess. "Here is the horrid tower where my beloved is. Please put me down a minute, and let me cry."
"No, no," said the Giant; "you have done enough of that, my dear, and we have no time to spare. So, if this is your Prince's tower, just get in at the window, and tell him to come out quickly, and I will take you both away without making any fuss."
"That is the window--the fourth-story one. Lift me up," said the Princess.
But though the Giant was very large, he was not quite tall enough for this feat, for they built their towers very high in those days. So, putting Ting-a-ling and the Princess into his pocket, he looked around for something to stand on. Seeing a barn near by, he picked it up, and placed it underneath the window. He put his foot on it to try if it would bear him, and, finding it would (for in those times barns were very strong), he stood upon it, and looked in the fourth-story window. Taking his little friends out of his pocket, he put them on the window-sill, where Ting-a-ling remained to see what would happen, but the Princess jumped right down on the floor. As there was a lighted candle on the table, she saw that there was some one covered up in the bed.
"O, there he is!" said she. "Now I will wake him up, and hurry him away." But just at that moment, as she was going to give the sleeper a gentle shake, she happened to perceive the yellow boots sticking out from under the sheet.
"O dear!" said she in a low voice, "if he hasn't gone to bed with his boots on! And if I wake him, he will jump right down on the floor, and make a great noise, and we shall be found out."
So she went to the foot of the bed, and pulled off the boots very gently.
"White stockings!" said she. "What does this mean? I know the Prince wore green stockings, for I took particular notice how well they looked with his yellow boots. There must be something wrong, I declare! Let me run to the other end of the bed, and see how it is there. O my! O my!" cried she, turning down the sheet. "A woman's head! Wrong both ways! O what shall I do?"
Letting the sheet drop, she accidentally touched the head, which immediately rolled off on to the floor.
"Loose! Loose!! Loose!!!" she screamed in bitter agony, clasping her hands above her head. "What shall I ever do? O misery! misery me! Some demon has changed him, all but his boots. O Despair! Despair!"
And, without knowing what she did, she rushed frantically out of the room, and along the dark passage, and popped right down through the open trap.
"What's up?" said the Giant, putting his face to the window. "What's all this noise about?"
"O I don't know," said Ting-a-ling, almost crying, "but somebody's head is off; and it's a lady--all but the boots--and the Princess has run away! O dear! O dear!"
"Come now!" said Tur-il-i-ra, "Ting-a-ling, get into my pocket. I must see into this myself, for I can't be waiting here all night, you know."
So the Giant, still standing on the barn, lifted off the roof of the tower, and threw it to some distance. He then, by the moonlight, examined the upper story, but, finding no Prince or Princess, brushed down the walls until he came to the floor, and, taking it up, he looked carefully over the next story. This he continued, until he had torn down the whole tower, and