Ned was terrified at first, as it was with great difficulty that he kept his body from playing battledore and shuttlecock. The greater the speed of the huge mass, however, the less inclination there was to bounce about, and he soon found himself literally glued, as it were, to one side.
While thus traveling in this novel way, he began to entertain some fear as to what would happen should an obstacle be encountered, and by some strange coincidence no sooner had, the idea come than it was followed by a terrific crash!
The crust of the cake ball broke into a thousand pieces, and Ned landed safely some distance from the spot, still clinging to a huge piece of sponge cake, which acted like a cushion between him and the ground.
Looking anxiously around, after wiping some stray crumbs from his eyes, he saw his little friend, the Gnome, running frantically down the steep incline, which, luckily for Ned, had been the cause of his liberation.
Finding him unhurt, the Gnome sat down on the piece of cake to rest himself and regain his breath before speaking.
When he did, however, what he said caused Ned to run quickly over to the brook to look at himself in the water.
To his dismay, what the Gnome had said was, indeed, too true. Ned was nearly as broad as he was high.
The cake he had eaten had evidently occupied the same space inside of him as it had inside the brown crust.
"What am I ever going to do?" said Ned.
"'Twas a lucky think I kept you from drinking another gobletful of the watermelon juice," answered the Gnome. "Otherwise you might have eaten the whole cake, and then you might have been twice as large as you are now."