Soon they were so far in the jungle that the path was entirely overgrown. No ray of light penetrated through the deep foliage. Angelita became frightened. “I’ll not go another step if you do not tell me where you are taking me,” she said as she stamped her little foot upon the ground.
The old negro burst into tears and told Angelita all that her step-mother had commanded. “I could not hurt one hair of your lovely head, much less cut off the tip of your little tongue, yayazinha,” sobbed the old man.
Angelita stood still and thought. “Go back to my step-mother,” she said to the old man. “On the way you will see plenty of dogs. Cut off the tip of a little dog’s tongue and carry it home to my step-mother.”
This is what the old negro did. The step-mother believed him and thought that he had slain her step-daughter according to her command.
Angelita, in the meantime, wandered on and on through the jungle. The big snakes glided swiftly out of her path. The monkeys and the parrots chattered to keep her from being lonely. She wandered on and on until finally she came to an enormous palace. The front door was wide open. She went from room to room, but the palace was entirely deserted. There was not a neat, orderly room in the entire palace.
“I can make these lovely rooms neat and clean,” said Angelita. “They surely need some one to do it!” She found a broom and went to work at once. Soon the whole palace was in order once more. Everything was clean and bright.
Just as Angelita was finishing her task she heard a great noise. She looked out of the door, and there were three enormous giants entering the house. She had never dreamed that giants could be so big. She was frightened nearly to death and scrambled under a chair as fast as she could.
When the giants came into the house they were amazed to find everything in such splendid order. “This is a different looking place from what we left,” said the biggest giant.
“What dirty, disorderly giants we have been, living here all by ourselves,” said the middle-sized giant. “I just realize it, now that I see what our house looks like when it is neat and clean.”
“What kind fairy could have done all this work while we were away?” said the littlest giant, who was not little at all, but almost as big as his enormous brothers.