But he plays many a queer prank even in the midst of his anger. One day he lifted a schoolhouse, turned it around in the air, and set it down with the back of the house just where the front had been.
Once when he was tumbling down houses with a great racket, he found a baby in a cradle. Catching it up, he was off like a flash.
Where had he taken the baby? Would it ever be found alive? "Never," the people said. But just then a cry was heard, and there was the little child safe in the branches of a tree!
This giant meddles with everything within his reach. He knocks the apples off the trees before they are ripe. He tears the vines from the house, and picks the flowers from their stalks.
He is not always honest, for on washing days he often tries to steal the clothes from the line. He takes things which boys and girls leave in the yard, or on the doorstep.
Then the old giant goes whistling on his way to hide his stolen goods. Sometimes he throws them under the bushes, and sometimes he tosses them into the water.
II.
| bugle | unseen | neither | flute |
| music | chimney | thirsty | whence |
| cattle | saddest | keyhole | grinds |
The unseen giant is often kind and gentle. In the long, hot summer time he softly fans sick children, and helps them to become strong and well again.