“Phew!” he gasped, “I’ve had an awful time! Whatever possessed you all to go at such a pace?”
“Well, I like that!” said Nurse. “When it was you who asked us to get to the sugar-wood before dark!”
“I wish I hadn’t now,” said the Giant. “Trying to catch you up I stumbled right into the middle of the Ogres, and I’d no sooner got away from them—after having my coat torn half off my back—than I stepped plump on to the Red Dragon, and you know what that means!”
“Dear, dear!” said Nurse. “Was he very vexed?”
“Vexed!” said the Giant. “He was in such a hideous passion that he made after me as fast as he could waddle—and then he started gliding. I was up in the air in a moment, I can tell you, striding along for all I was worth, and when he saw he couldn’t catch me from the ground he took to his wings and flew! And when a Dragon uses his wings—well—you know what you’ve got to expect! He’s after me now—and the Ogres are, too!” he added resignedly.
“Oh, they’ll never find you here!” said Nurse. “The Ring brought you along faster than any Ogre or Dragon could travel.”
“I thought an Ogre was almost the same as a Giant?” Peggy whispered to Nurse.
“Good gracious, no!” said she. “Don’t let the Giant hear you say that! They’re a set of vagabonds and ruffians who haunt the edge of Fairy-land. The kind with one eye in their foreheads, and the sort who say ‘Fe-Fo-Fum.’ You must have read about them? They can’t harm us Fairies, but any Giant, especially a really nice good one like yours, makes them simply mad!”
Peggy slid off her branch and flew to the Giant, perching on his shoulder and stroking his hair.
“I’ll take care of you,” she said, “if they do come. Don’t you be afraid! He’ll be all right, won’t he?” she added, turning to the Fairies.