Now all that it held was—one brown potato!
Wry-Face the gnome stared and stared and stared, his eyes growing rounder and rounder; but he had no time to weep, on account of Heigh-Heavy the giant who had fallen into a rage terrible to see.
“Now there is one thing quite certain,” said Heigh-Heavy, “and that is that you shall never marry my daughter So-Small, for, my Wry-Face, I will turn you into a brown potato, and a brown potato you shall remain your whole life through.”
When Wry-Face heard this terrible threat he took to his heels, and ran from the Most Enormous House of Heigh-Heavy, the giant. He ran, and ran, till his coat was torn and his ears were red; and he never rested till he reached his cottage door, and got inside.
Heigh-Heavy laughed till he cried to see the little gnome run. “He will play no tricks on me!” said he. And he went in and shut the door.
But Wry-Face said to himself, as he carried the potatoes, weeping, to the potato-wife:
“I will never play a trick on anyone again, not as long as I live!”
CHANTICLEER
Once upon a time a widow and her two daughters lived in a little cottage near a grove. They were so poor that it took the most careful managing to earn a humble living. Their meals were very simple; indeed, they often had nothing but milk and brown bread, and once in a while a bit of bacon and an egg or two.