"The giant was so tall that his ponderous chin was level with the floor of the golden throne; and you can well imagine their surprise, not a little of which was tinged with fear, when they saw his massive features.
"The children sank back in affright; but when the Queen assured them that the Giant was as kind as any doll down in the village, they ventured to turn with a shudder and look into his partly opened mouth. It appeared to them like a hole in the mountain near Harpers Ferry where the people once dug out coal.
"As he uttered a few words of respect to the Queen, accompanied with a low bow, the sound which came from his partly opened lips was like the deep, growling rumble of distant thunder and shook the very throne on which they were standing.
"His eyes were larger than saucers; and the great veins in his glaring eye-balls seemed like blood-red cords swollen and ready to burst. His ears, each ornamented with an earring as big as a wagon-tire, were as long as Maud's little arm; and never a pumpkin grew longer or larger than Kimbo's great nose.
"His neck was as thick as the trunk of the largest tree that grew down by the Shenandoah River, and just about as wrinkled and rough as its bark; while his broad shoulders were far wider than the entire throne of the Queen.
"His eyebrows resembled great patches of grass more than eyebrows, and his massive jaws, supporting a wrinkled chin, looked as if they might take a bite out of the very rock in the side of the mountain and not mind it in the least.
"On the top of his head he wore a peculiar kind of rig intended no doubt for a hat, which was bound firmly in place by strands of his coarse black hair, as thick and perhaps as strong as a hawser. On closer inspection, however, this hat proved to be a kind of settee, for its entire side was an upholstered seat with strong arms and deep cushions.
"The Queen stepped toward the edge of the throne and invited the children for a ride on the Giant's head.
"As they were all ready to get aboard, the Giant lowered his head until the settee was level with the floor of the throne and they were not tardy in getting comfortably seated. In another moment they were off on the journey.
"They started away at such a rapid pace that the children could hardly breathe; so the Queen cautioned the Giant to go more slowly, and he slackened his pace to the speed of a railroad train. The Queen informed them that he was then only walking, and that they need not be alarmed in the least as the Giant was sure-footed and would not stumble or fall.