WHEN the Rainbow Cat left the land of the Tree-goblins he travelled for some time until he came to a delightful country called the Bountiful Land. It was a marvellous country.
There were deep forests there, and great meadows full of the loveliest flowers, such as only grow in gardens in other countries; the sky was nearly always blue, and the people who lived in that land were happy and contented. That is to say, they would have been but for one thing.
In the very middle of the country there was a great castle built high upon a rock, and in this castle—so the inhabitants of the place told the Rainbow Cat—there lived a cruel and wicked giantess who tyrannised over the people and constantly took away their goods, sometimes even their children.
The Rainbow Cat did not meet with any one who had actually seen the giantess face to face, but terrible tales were told of her doings and of her horrible appearance. She was three times the[64] height of an ordinary man, it was said. Her hair was like knotted ropes, her eyes flamed fire; when she blew her nose, the sound was like thunder; when she sneezed, forests swayed as beneath a hurricane; when she stamped her foot, whole villages collapsed.
Besides being a giantess she was reported to be able to work magic, and that frightened the people more than anything else.
On dark nights she would come down from her castle, they told him, in a chariot drawn by six dragons, and when the people heard the noise of it they fled into their houses and locked the doors and barred the windows. From within they could hear their barns and granaries being ransacked, and the opening of the doors of sheds and stables, whence their best cattle and horses were carried off.
But sometimes a great voice would be heard shouting in the dark, “Throw out your treasures or I will take your children.” Then the terrified people opened their windows and threw out their treasures in fear and trembling.
And notices would mysteriously appear in the villages, threatening that unless certain things were delivered up at the castle gates, the giantess would come down and take a terrible revenge.
The things were conveyed up the rocky path by terrified villagers, who left them in front of[65] the gates as commanded. They always came back with most alarming stories of what they had observed.
One man had seen the giantess’s shoes being cleaned by a servant in the courtyard. They were as big, he said, as a hay waggon.
 
Another was so frightened by the sight of her washing hanging out on the line that he ran all the way home and did not get over it for weeks.
But the worst thing of all was that children who had wandered a little way from home disappeared and never came back.
Others who escaped would tell how an enormous cloaked figure had suddenly sprung out from behind a tree, seized one of their comrades, and made off into the woods.
[66]The thing had grown so bad that people dare not let their children out of their sight for a moment, and they were growing so afraid of the visits of the giantess that all happiness was rapidly vanishing out of the land.
The fame of the Rainbow Cat’s wisdom had already reached this country, and the people were delighted to see him and implored him to come to their assistance. The Rainbow Cat felt that this was a very serious matter indeed, but he was exceedingly sorry for the people and promised to do all he could to help them.
So on the evening of the second day after his arrival, he took his little bag, which contained, among other things, the lightning which the Thunder Giant had given him and the bottle of fairy water from Tree-goblin-land, and quietly set off for the castle of the giantess.
He said nothing of his purpose to the kind folk with whom he was staying—he knew it would only make them fearfully anxious.
He just said he was going out for a little walk in order to think the matter over.
He climbed lightly and softly up the rocky path until he came right under the castle walls.
There were two immense stone towers, one at each end of the castle, and from the high chimney of one of them great clouds of evil-looking smoke[67] were pouring forth—green and purple and black.
“Aha,” said the Rainbow Cat to himself, “that’s where she’s busy at her horrible tricks, is it?”
So he sat down outside the tower, opened his bag, and dabbed his eyes with water from his little bottle, so that he was able to see right through the wall into the inside of the tower.
To his great astonishment, he saw no giantess, but a very nasty-looking old wizard with a long grey beard and an enormously tall hat, who sat in a large room in front of a great open fire.
All manner of strange and terrible-looking things hung upon the walls of the room or were stowed away in cupboards, and the floor and tables were piled with books of magic.
A great bunch of keys hung from the girdle of the wizard, who was busily stirring something which was bubbling over the fire in a big black pot, from which came the smoke that the Rainbow Cat had noticed pouring from the chimney.
The firelight shone on the labels of the keys, so that the Rainbow Cat was able to read what was written on them.
“Gold Chest—Silver Chest—Jewel Chest—Giantess’s Room—Prisoners’ Room—Giantess’s Garden”: these were some of the names he read on the labels, and he began to understand things[68] a little better. But he thought he would make a few more investigations. So he picked up his little bag and walked softly off to the other end of the castle, sat down on the ground at the foot of the tower there, and again bathed his eyes with fairy water.
This time he found himself looking into a big room full of children.
They were all very busy.
Some of them were sorting strange-looking herbs, some of them were grinding queer substances with heavy stones, some of them were anxiously measuring out liquids drop by drop from one bottle into another.
They all looked pale and tired; they did not laugh and talk over their work as one would expect children to do.
And then the door of the room opened and in walked—who but the giantess herself!
But imagine the surprise of the Rainbow Cat upon discovering that, although she was indeed immensely tall, she was otherwise by no means a terrible-looking person, but had, on the contrary, a sweet and charming face and beautiful golden hair.
The children all came running up to her as soon as she appeared, and seemed delighted to see her. She bent down and lifted some of them up into[69] her arms, and was so gentle and sweet with them all that it was a joy to see her.
The Rainbow Cat lost no further time; he took his mandolin, and sitting there at the foot of the tower, he began playing a little tune.
He daren’t play very loud for fear the wizard should hear him in the other tower, but fortunately the wind was in the right direction, and in any case he felt pretty certain that the wizard was too much taken up with his enchantments to pay attention to anything else.
But the giantess heard, for of course giantesses have very much larger ears than ordinary people and hear much better, and she put her head out of the window and saw the Rainbow Cat sitting there in the dusk and asked him who he was and what he was doing.
“I am a friend,” said the Rainbow Cat. “Help me to come up.”
So the giantess let down her ribbon waist-belt with the bag she kept her handkerchief in tied to the bottom of it, and this was so large that ............