"I am not wicked," replied the fairy; "and I did it because I wanted to please the King, and to make you stay with him over Christmas, and I think I managed it very well. Some of us fairies took the bell from your cow, and we tinkled it before you until we led you to the very brink of the ice hill. Then you slid down, and were not hurt, and now you can't get away."
"But what good will that do you and the King?" cried the giant. "I shall certainly not join him and his people at Christmas."
"You can't help it," said the fairy. "To-night the ice imps will build up the ice under you until you and your straw will be on the side of a very high hill. You will be in a smooth cleft or gully of ice, which will slope downward until it ends in one of the great parks outside of the city. You can't get out of the cleft, and are bound to slide down as soon as we are ready. Everybody will know what is going to happen, and the King and hundreds of people will be in the park. Then, early to-morrow morning, you will slide down among them, and everybody will bid you 'Merry Christmas.' What do you think of that plan? Giants and men can do nothing with you, but we little creatures can manage you, can't we?"
"You are a lot of little miscreants," said Shamruck, "and you can do a great deal of mischief when you try. I acknowledge that in this case you are more powerful than giants or men. But do you know what will happen if you carry out this plan?"
"What?" asked the fairy.
"I shall lose my temper, a thing I don't often do; but I know I shall do it if you play such a trick on me as that."
"And what will happen then?" asked the fairy.
"Happen!" cried Shamruck. "I shall boil over with rage. If I find myself against my will among those people on Christmas-day, I shall be so wild with anger that I will trample them to death without mercy. There will not be many of them who will think it a merry Christmas."
"Do you really mean that?" asked the fairy.
"I certainly do," said Shamruck.