II.
So the mother made some porridge, and Nan began to eat it.
At the first plateful she could look over the table; at the second she reached up to her mother's shoulder; at the third she was taller than her mother.
"Stop! stop!" said the mother, as Nan began upon the fourth plate; "you'll be a giantess; and your legs are so thin, I am afraid they will break in two. You look as if you were on stilts."
"One must have long legs," said Nan, "in order to run fast. It was the woolly dog that thought of it," she added, and she would have stooped down to pat the toy dog, with its red morocco collar, but she was so high up that she found it a difficult matter to bend down. "I am as stiff as a poker," said she.
The woolly dog, however, understood what she wanted, and he jumped upon a chair, then upon the table, and finally into Nan's arms.
She would have given him some porridge, but her mother said—
"No; if he should grow as tall as you, we should not know what to do with him."
Then the little dog laughed.
"Perhaps he will run away with the spoon," said Nan.
But no; he was an honest little dog, and did not think of doing anything of the kind.