"What is it?"

"I was to take a chicken to my old mother," answered the giant sadly.

"Go ahead," said Ned. "I can take care of myself. At any rate it is about time my friend the Gnome came back to me."

"You are very kind," said the giant. "Here are your Magic Axe and your Magic Pickaxe. I almost forgot them," and he set off at a great rate for his mother's house.

Ned, too, quickened his pace, for it was growing late, and the shadows creeping from tree to tree. At length he saw a light in the distance. It was a very little light, not much larger than a star, and at first Ned thought it might be a giant firefly. However, he kept on and after a while it turned out to be a little candle in the window of a poor woodcutter's hut. Knocking on the door, it was presently opened by a strange looking man. He had long hairy ears like a donkey and was dressed in the skins of wild animals.

"Welcome," he said in a kindly voice, "I am just preparing my evening meal. Come in and eat." Ned followed the donkey-eared man into the cottage and sat down at the rude wooden table on which were spread black bread and beans.

"I have but humble fare to offer you," said the donkey-eared man, but his smile was a kind one as he helped Ned to the beans with a large wooden spoon. "But as I see you are a traveler, you no doubt have fared worse at times," and he smiled again in such a friendly way, that Ned took a great liking to him.

"You are right. I'm a traveler, seeking adventures and many strange things I have seen while visiting Gnomeland."

"I have heard little of the world since my ears were changed into those of a donkey," sighed the donkey-eared man.

"Is there no magic charm which will remove them?" asked Ned, as he finished the last bean on his plate and wiped his mouth carefully with the pocket handkerchief which his kind mother had given him the very morning he had set out for Gnomeland.

"None whatever," answered the man with a sigh. "There is no charm nor magic herb, but I've heard tell of a Magic Axe that once cut down a charmed oak tree overshadowing a king's palace. But where am I to find that Magic Axe?"

When Ned heard that, he jumped up and went behind the door where he had hung his knapsack. Taking out the Magic Axe, he laid it on the table before the donkey-eared man.

"Cut off my ears!" shouted the donkey-eared man.

"I can't do it," said Ned, trembling all over.

"Do as I ask you," begged the donkey-eared man, laying his head on the table.

Instead, however, Ned touched the donkey ears with his little magic gold ring, at the same time whispering, "Away with you!"

Off went the long, hairy ears, and the next minute, two grew in their place, just like yours and mine.

All the next day Ned trudged on alone until towards evening, he came to the edge of a pine-forest, where close at hand stood a small hut made of pine-branches, plastered with mud and thatched with rye-straw. No sooner had he tapped on the door than it was opened by a girl. She looked out timidly, thinking, I suppose, it might be a robber. But when she saw Ned, she smiled.

"Come in," she said, and Ned saw four small children staring curiously at him.

The room was very smoky, for there was no chimney to the rude hut. A hole in the roof let the smoke out, and there were no windows, for the father of these children was a poor peasant who made his living by gathering turpentine in the pine forest.

Ned sat down, while the girl went on with her work until the black beans were ready for supper, when she put them all in a big wooden bowl, and invited Ned to join her and the four children.

While they were eating out of the bowl with a wooden spoon, a tame jackdaw who had been sitting on an old stool by the fireside, hopped over and perched himself close to Ned.

When the supper was over, and the children were ready for bed, he whispered, "This little family is very poor. Their father is away selling turpentine, and there is little food in the cupboard. But if you will come with me tonight, I will show you how we can help them."

When all the children were sound asleep, Ned looked over to the fireside where the jackdaw sat, his eyes shining brighter and brighter through the darkness, till they made the room so light that Ned could plainly see the five sleeping children huddled together on the straw bed in the corner.

Then the jackdaw nodded, and hopping down from the stool on which he sat, walked softly over to the door.

The moon shone brightly on the bare brown fields silvered with white frost, and in the still, cold air, the forest looked like a black cloud just dropped upon the earth.