Poor Tiny could only stand and shiver, awaiting his dreadful fate. The green light became brighter and brighter, and soon he saw that he was surrounded by a circle of glow worms. The ogre was a fierce porcupine. Tiny had never before seen such a terrible creature.
“Every soldier in my army is loyal to me!” shouted the porcupine boisterously. “Each comes with a lantern to help me. They will aid me to tie you, place you in that bag, and hang you in my den deep down in the cold ground.”
“I did not come to rob you,” mumbled Tiny, shaking violently. “I am lost, and am trying to find my way home. This is my hunting bag in which I gather my winter store. Please let me go unharmed.”
“Neither you nor your hunting bag has any right to be on my castle grounds,” growled the porcupine. “Either the woodchuck or the rabbit has told you that I have many priceless valuables hidden in my storeroom.”
“I have never met the woodchuck, nor have I seen the rabbit for many weeks,” wailed Tiny. “In my hunting bag are acorns and beech-nuts. I halted underneath this tree to gather a few of these fine acorns.”
“Guilty creature!” cried the porcupine, bristling still more. “Do not these acorns belong to me, also the tree they grow upon? Confess now that you were going to burrow into my storeroom and carry off the precious carrots and cabbage leaves I have stored away for a rainy day.”
“You are mistaken,” said Tiny, almost dead from fright, while the glow worms circled still more closely about him.
Just then he remembered what the owl prophet had told him to do. As the porcupine attempted to seize him, Tiny leaped forward and caught one of the sharp darts and gave him a hard jab, which made the porcupine shriek at the top of his voice. Moaning with pain, the ferocious creature disappeared into the ground. The glow worms vanished.
“I HAVE CONQUERED THE OGRE!” CRIED TINY IN DELIGHT, WHIRLING THE SWORD ABOUT IN THE AIR.