"'I hear you have the power to change yourself into any animal.'

"'That is true,' answered the ogre, so pleased that at once he turned himself into a lion.

"'I doubt if you can become as small as a mouse,' said Puss in Boots.

"Instantly the ogre changed himself into a mouse, whereupon Puss in Boots pounced upon him and ate him up.

"At that moment up drove the coach. Throwing open the castle door, Puss in Boots said with a hospitable bow:

"'Welcome to the castle of my Lord of Carabas.' And, to make a long story short," laughed Ned, "his master married the King's daughter and lived happily ever after."

"Whew!" gasped the giant. "He certainly was a wonderful cat," and he looked anxiously at the Magic Axe.

Presently Ned began to feel hungry, and opening his knapsack, took out his bread and cheese.

"What is that white stuff?" asked the giant, who had never seen cheese before.

"That is a stone," answered Ned, commencing to eat it with a hungry appetite.

"Do you eat stones?" asked the giant.

"Oh yes," answered Ned. "That's my regular food, which explains why I'm not so big as you who eat oxen; but it's also the reason why, little as I am, I am ten times as strong as you are. Now take me to your house."

The giant looked at the Magic Axe which had so nearly destroyed his forest, and then at Ned eating a stone with apparent relish.

"I will," he said, and humbly led the way to his monstrous cabin.

"Now listen," said Ned to the giant after they were fairly seated, "one of us must be the master, and the other the servant. If I can't do whatever you do, I am to be your slave; if you're not able to do whatever I do, you are to be mine."

"Agreed," said the giant. "I'd be tickled to death to have a little servant like you. It's too much work for me to think, and you have brains enough for both. Well, let's start the trial. Here are my two buckets,—go and get the water to make the soup!"

Ned looked at the buckets, the tops of which he couldn't even see, for they were two enormous hogsheads, ten feet high and six broad. It would have been much easier for him to drown himself in them than to move them.

"Ho, ho!" shouted the giant. "Do what I do and get the water."

"What's the good of that?" replied Ned. "I'll go get the spring itself to put in the pot," knowing that he could easily run back to the king's castle for the little magic nutshell.

"No, no!" said the giant, "that won't do. You have already half spoiled my forest with your Magic Axe. I don't want you to take my spring away. You may attend to the fire, and I'll go for the water."

So the giant hung up the kettle, put into it an ox cut into pieces, fifty cabbages, and a wagon-load of carrots, skimming the broth with a frying pan, tasting it every now and then until it was done. When everything was ready, he turned and said:

"Now we'll see if you can do what I can. I feel like eating the whole ox, and you into the bargain. I think I'll serve you for dessert."

"All right," answered little Ned. But before sitting down he slipped his knapsack under his jacket.

Then the two champions set to work. Perhaps Ned was a trifle nervous, knowing only too well that if he failed he must be the giant's servant.

Well, the giant ate and ate, and Ned wasn't idle; only he pitched everything, beef, cabbage, carrots, and all, into his knapsack when the giant wasn't looking.

"Ouf!" at last grunted the giant, "I can't do much more. I've got to undo the lower button of my waistcoat."

"Eat away, starveling!" cried Ned, sticking half a cabbage into his knapsack.

"Ouf!" groaned the giant, "I must loosen another button. But what sort of an ostrich's stomach have you got, Kiddo? I should say you were used to eating stones!"

"Eat away, lazy-bones!" said Ned, sticking a huge chunk of beef into his knapsack.

"Ouf!" sighed the giant for the third time, "I must open the third button."

"Bah!" answered Ned. "It's the easiest thing to relieve yourself," and taking his knife, he slit his jacket and the knapsack under it the whole length of his stomach. "Now's your turn. Do as I do, if you can!"

"Excuse me!" gasped the giant. "You win. I'd rather be your servant than do that."

Then kissing Ned's hand in token of submission, he lifted his little master on his shoulder, and slinging the six bags of gold over his back, started off through the forest.

"Wait a minute," said Ned, "I've forgotten my Magic tools." So the giant picked them up and thrusting them in his pocket, again set off at a tremendous rate.

After a while, they came in sight of a great castle where lived a lord even more wicked than the cruel Blue Beard. As they drew nearer, they heard loud screams like those of some fair lady in distress. The next minute the wicked lord dragged a lovely lady by the hair across the courtyard.

With one stride the giant stepped over the castle wall.

"Shall I toss him over the moon?" he asked.

"No, leave him to me," replied Ned. The wicked lord trembled and grew as pale as a white swan that swam nearby in a beautiful fountain.

"My giant servant at a sign from me, will pitch you over the moon. But instead, as you have the reputation of being the greatest liar that ever lived, we will see who can tell the biggest story, you or I. If you lose, you shall give your castle to this fair lady and take yourself off, I don't care where, but you must never return."

At once the wicked lord commenced to tell the biggest story he could imagine.

"I have a bull so large that a man can sit on each of his horns, and the two can't touch each other with a twenty foot pole."

"Oh, that's nothing," replied Ned. "At home on the farm we have a bull so large that a servant sitting on one of his horns can't see the servant sitting on the other."

"You win," laughed the pretty princess, clapping her hands at Ned. Then the wicked lord went to his stable and saddling his best horse, rode away. But as he passed through the gate, Ned touched his steed with his magic gold ring. Instantly the horse turned into an immense bird and flew away. But where he went no one knows to this day.