‘How dare you laugh at me?’ he screamed; ‘who are you, you minx, you minx, you lynx—you——’
But the Princess did not listen to him. She turned to the giant, who at any rate was quiet, and said:
‘Will you not take a chair until the Lords of the Council arrive?’
The giant looked at her in stupid astonishment.
‘What shall I do with the chair when I’ve taken it?’ he mumbled.
‘I mean you to sit down on it, of course,’ said the Princess.
The giant growled out in reply:
‘Well, I never sat on a chair before, but to please you I will.’
So he sat down, but as he was not used to sitting on chairs he sat down on its back; but it was only a small cane-bottomed chair, and as he was very big, and the chair was very small, the result is easily foreseen, for the chair collapsed under him as if he had sat on a top-hat, and he reclined comfortably on the floor, where he remained for the rest of the time.