“I wish it wasn’t such a wet day,” said Peggy, lying full length in the loft amongst the hay, and looking through the cobwebby little window at the driving rain. “Why, what does the rain matter?” asked the Giant, coming through the roof, and lying down in the hay, too, with both legs dangling out of the trap-door. And the sunshine poured through the hole he had made, and a big patch of blue sky gleamed above it.
“Oh dear!” said Peggy, “I never noticed I had the Ring on! What waste of a wish! The garden boy said it was going to clear in half an hour anyway. Nannie thinks I’m in the garden,” she went on, “but I ran up[55] here out of the rain. Hadn’t we better go out again now it’s stopped?”
“Oh, do let’s stop here for a bit,” said the Giant. “I’m so stiff from yesterday’s digging. I stayed on and did a lot after you’d gone. Look here,” and he pulled handfuls of glittering red and green stones out of his pocket.
“I didn’t mean to go off suddenly like that,” said Peggy rather shamefacedly. “I hope you thanked the Pixies for us both?”
“Oh yes, that was all right,” said the Giant, scooping together all the hay within reach and making it into a pillow for his head. “By the way,” he went on lazily, staring up at the dusty beams, “do you realise this is our last adventure?”
“Why, so it is!” said Peggy with a gasp. “Oh, how awful! I can’t bear to think I shan’t see you again,” and she caught hold of the Giant’s little finger and hugged it hard. “What shall I do without you?”
“Well, you must think of something very exciting indeed for our last day,” said the Giant. “And don’t go wasting wishes like you’ve been doing lately. It spoils all the fun.”
“The thing that puzzles me,” said Peggy, looking at her Ring as it gleamed and sparkled in that dark place, “is how much the Ring does, and how much you do? And why sometimes it doesn’t work till it’s turned, and why you can’t always bring me back without my having to use up a wish, and where you live when you’re not here, and——”
“Well, of all the inquisitive children you absolutely take the cake!” said the Giant. “I don’t think I’ve been asked so many questions for the last five hundred years at least.[56] I haven’t the slightest intention of answering one of them. Instead of being grateful for having so many wishes at a time, you begin grumbling——”
“O Giant, darling, I didn’t mean to grumble!” cried Peggy. “I was only wondering. But I won’t ask any more questions, I promise you, if you’ll only think of some lovely exciting adventure for to-day. You think of such beautiful things always,” she added.
“Oh, that’s all very well!” said the Giant, but his voice sounded rather pleased. “Well now, let me see. This takes some thinking. What was it that that child and I did in 1350 or thereabouts? Oh yes, I remember. She wished all her toys to come alive. How would you like that?”
“Perhaps it would be rather fun,” said Peggy—and she wished it, but in rather a doubtful voice. “You’re sure it will be really exciting?” she asked....
“Listen to all that trampling,” said the Giant in reply, nibbling at a straw and blinking at the rafters.
Peggy raced to the loft door and looked down into the yard below, where an extraordinary sight met her eyes. For the whole place had suddenly become packed from end to end with every kind of animal, bird and insect, all rushing to and fro in the greatest state of excitement.
“Oh, do look down!” Peggy implored the Giant. “Where can they all have come from? There’s a camel, I’m sure. Oh, and there’s a lion going right off into the rose bed! What will John say? And there’s a funny old man in a long coat running about amongst them all! Who can he be?”
“Noah,” answered the Giant, “and it’s all the animals from your Noah’s Ark, of course. My word, you’ll have a lively time getting ’em in again! You’d better go down, I think.”
[57]Peggy ran down the steps, and Noah at once bustled up to her in a great state of mind.
“This coat of mine hampers me dreadfully,” he panted. “Do you think you could restore any kind of order? The tigers have got into the kitchen garden, and a dromedary and one, if not both, the leopards, have gone down the high road towards the village!”
“Giant, Giant, come and help!” shouted Peggy, and the next moment the Giant was standing by her side, shaking pieces of hay off himself, which the few remaining animals immediately ate.
“He wants us to drive them up into the nursery again,” said Peggy. “You go that way,” and she pointed through the open gate into the kitchen garden, “and I’ll go round the house and get them out of the flower beds. And you,” to Noah, “run down the road after them!”
“Chuck, chuck, chuck,” she went on to a pair of red storks strutting to and fro in the perennial border, but they simply flew on to ............