[Illustration:  The giant Galligantua and the wicked old magician transform the duke’s daughter into a white hind]

So Jack, when he had presented the head of Galligantua to King Arthur, together with all the lords and ladies he had delivered from enchantment, found he had nothing more to do.  As a reward for past services, however, King Arthur bestowed the hand of the duke’s daughter upon honest Jack the Giant-Killer.  So married they were, and the whole kingdom was filled with joy at their wedding.  Furthermore, the King bestowed on Jack a noble castle with a magnificent estate belonging thereto, whereon he, his lady, and their children lived in great joy and content for the rest of their days.

[Illustration:  Headpiece—­The Three Sillies]

THE THREE SILLIES

Once upon a time, when folk were not so wise as they are nowadays, there lived a farmer and his wife who had one daughter.  And she, being a pretty lass, was courted by the young squire when he came home from his travels.

Now every evening he would stroll over from the Hall to see her and stop to supper in the farm-house, and every evening the daughter would go down into the cellar to draw the cider for supper.

So one evening when she had gone down to draw the cider and had turned the tap as usual, she happened to look up at the ceiling, and there she saw a big wooden mallet stuck in one of the beams.

It must have been there for ages and ages, for it was all covered with cobwebs; but somehow or another she had never noticed it before, and at once she began thinking how dangerous it was to have the mallet just there.

“For,” thought she, “supposing him and me was married, and supposing we was to have a son, and supposing he were to grow up to be a man, and supposing he were to come down to draw cider like as I’m doing, and supposing the mallet were to fall on his head and kill him, how dreadful it would be!”

And with that she put down the candle she was carrying and, seating herself on a cask, began to cry.  And she cried and cried and cried.

Now, upstairs, they began to wonder why she was so long drawing the cider; so after a time her mother went down to the cellar to see what had come to her, and found her, seated on the cask, crying ever so hard, and the cider running all over the floor.

“Lawks a mercy me!” cried her mother, “whatever is the matter?”

“O mother!” says she between her sobs, “it’s that horrid mallet.  Supposing him and me was married, and supposing we was to have a son, and supposing he was to grow up to be a man, and supposing he was to come down to draw cider like as I’m doing, and supposing the mallet were to fall on his head and kill him, how dreadful it would be!”

“Dear heart!” said the mother, seating herself beside her daughter and beginning to cry:  “How dreadful it would be!”