The next fine afternoon, the animals all came to the cottage in good season, for they were to have a story from their kind hostess herself this time, and it was to be about a giant.
“And if you will believe it,” said the raccoon, “our poor Chucky here does not—ha! ha!—actually does not know what a giant is! Will you kindly explain to him, dear madam?”
“Ugh!” grunted the woodchuck. “I don’t believe you know yourself, Coon, for all your airs! You said this morning it was a kind of vegetable, and now—”
“Stop quarrelling, and listen to the story, will you?” said Bruin. “Wow!”
When the bear said “Wow” in that manner, all the others knew it meant business; and as he lay down at the grandmother’s feet, they all drew nearer, and were silent in expectation.
“A giant,” said the grandmother, “is like a man, only very much bigger; very, very much bigger. The giant about whom I am going to tell you was one of the largest of his kind, being no less than fourteen miles high.”
There was a general murmur of amazement.
“Fourteen miles high!” the old lady repeated. “His name was as short as he himself was long, for it was neither more nor less than Crump; and he fell in love with the Lady Moon. He fell so deeply in love with her that it was quite impossible for him to get out again; so he informed her of the fact, and begged her to marry him.
‘Come and share my mammoth lot,
And shine in my gigantic cot!’