TOM HICKATHRIFT. 41

At length a brewer at Lynn, who
required a strong lusty fellow to carry
his beer to the Marsh and to Wisbeach,
after much persuasion, and promising
him a new suit of clothes and as much as
he liked to eat and drink, secured Tom
for this business. ‘The distance he daily
travelled with the beer was upwards of
twenty miles, for although there was a
shorter cut through the Marsh, no one
durst go that way for fear of a monstrous
giant, who was lord of a portion of the
district, and who killed or made slaves
of every one he could lay his hands upon.

Now, in the course of time, Tom was
thoroughly tired of going such a round-
about way, and without telling his plans
to any one, he resolved to pass

through the giant’s domain, or lose his