Pretty soon they came to a big bridge, over a stream of water, and this was the beginning of the place where the good giant lived.
"We'll all have to go back now," said the purple ant, with the green patchwork squares on his checks. "If we crossed over the bridge we might fall off and be drowned. We'll go back, but you go ahead, and we wish you good luck, Uncle Wiggily."
"Indeed we do," said a white ant with gold buckles on her shoes.
Well, after a little while Uncle Wiggily found himself right inside the good giant's house. And oh! what a big place it was. Why, even the door mat was so big that it took the rabbit three hops to get to the top of it. And that front door! I wish you could have seen it! It was as large as one of your whole houses, and it was only a door, mind you.
"Hello! hello!" cried Uncle Wiggily, as he pounded with his crutch on the floor. "Is any one at home?"
"But no one answered, and there wasn't a sound except the ticking of the clock, and that made as much noise as a railroad train going over a bridge, for the clock was a big as a church steeple.
"Hum! No one is home," said Uncle Wiggily. "I'll just sit down and make myself comfortable." So he sat down on the floor by the table that was away over his head, and waited for the giant to come back.
And, all of a sudden, the rabbit heard a noise like a steam engine going, and he was quite surprised, until he happened to look up, and there stood a pussy cat as big as a cow, and the cat was purring, which made the noise like a steam engine.
"My, if that's the size of the cat, what must the giant be," thought the rabbit. "I do hope he's good-natured when he comes home."
Well, pretty soon, in a little while, as Uncle Wiggily was sitting there, listening to the big cat purr, he felt sleepy, and he was just going to sleep, when he heard a gentle voice singing: