THE MISCHIEVOUS PRANK OF THE GNOMES, 3

man over the great and powerful giants with
their childish minds. He knew, although his
slow brain could not have expressed it in
words, that the great, childish fellows felt the
power of the stronger mind of the little man
in gray, who controlled their natures, since
they could not do it themselves.

As we said before, the giants were usually
good-natured, and if they did no great good,
certainly did no great harm. They amused
themselves by striding about the country,
reaching the neighboring towns in half a dozen
good strides, fishing in the surrounding
ponds, and basking in the sunlight that lay on
the sides of the Blue Hill.

The quarrels among the giants seldom
amounted to more than a few high words that
were soon forgotten, as is the case of brothers
and sisters of the human family; but these
giants had enemies, and, strange to say, these
enemies, the only ones they feared, were the
very opposite of themselves, as small as they
were large, and were no other than the small
gnomes or dwarfs who lived in underground
caves and beneath large stones.

It would seem as if the great giants might