Dandelion Tickles the Giant's Nose.
"O, my great mistress, I was shaking dew out of the cups of white violets that grow by the stream, when this giant lay down near me and fell asleep. Then all the people hurried, and I with them, to your court. I heard you ask what should be done with the wicked Rodocanachi; and, when no one had an answer to give, and my mistress sorrowed, I crept back all alone to the hill-top, where the giant lay, and climbed on his shoulder--"
"My brave little Dandelion!" said the queen.
"I had picked up a feather, that a wood-dove had just let fall on the grass; and with this I tickled Rodocanachi's nose--"
"Fine work!" growled the general. "Suppose you had wakened him, and we were all slaves again!"
But the queen, waving the general back to his seat with her sceptre, said, "Let the boy go on: I am curious to hear the rest."
"The giant stirred; his head was on uneven ground, and the great brass helmet tipped, tipped, tipped, and at last it rolled away, and left his forehead bare."
"O, Dandelion, you have saved my kingdom!" said the queen; and the people all shouted "Bravo!" and "Hurrah for Dandelion!" as, without waiting longer for leave, they rushed to the hill-top where Rodocanachi lay.
Then came a clanging sound, as if all the mountains were great brass drums, and twenty giants were beating them--it echoed so far and wide.
"Ah, it's the giant's helmet! and now we fairies are safe!" exclaimed the queen. She clapped her hands, and the six blue dragon-flies flew to the hill-top with their chariot in time for Dandelion to see the helmet, still jarring where it had been thrown by the fairy-people, far down among the rocks.