The shoemaker was very much frightened, but he was a stubborn little fellow, and would not easily give up his purpose of winning the Christmas panniers. "There is no use of trying force on that giant," he said, "and everybody knows by this time that he can't be persuaded to do what he don't want to do. There is nothing left but to have him enchanted or bewitched. This very night I will go to see the fairies."
In a wood not very far from the city there lived a colony of fairies. The shoemaker knew the grassy glade, and he went directly to it. He had scarcely reached it when he met a fairy tripping along quietly by herself.
"How now, poor man?" exclaimed the fairy. "What brought you here?"
"Why do you think I am a poor man?" asked the shoemaker, very respectfully.
"I know very well," replied the fairy, "that you would not have come here at night if you had not needed something very much indeed. What is it?"
The shoemaker told her all about Shamruck, and the King's wishes, and how he and others had failed to detain the giant. Then he besought her to help him.
"And what are you going to do with the panniers when you get them?" asked the fairy.
"I shall give them to the most deserving person I know," he answered, with a little chuckle. "A very worthy fellow indeed."
The fairy understood him. "I do not care a bit," she said, "about benefiting you, for I am not at all certain you deserve it, but I think the King is quite right in wishing Shamruck to spend Christmas with the rest of the people, and I have a great mind to try and see what I can do to bring the thing about."
"But if you succeed," said the shoemaker. "I must have the credit of the affair, for if I had not come here to-night you never would have done anything at all."