It was a fine night. The cows were in the fields, and Farmer Giles’s dog had got out and gone for a walk on his own account. He had a fancy for moonshine, and rabbits. He had no idea, of course, that a giant was also out for a walk. That would have given him a good reason for going out without leave, but a still better reason for staying quiet in the kitchen. At about two o’clock the giant arrived in Farmer Giles’s fields, broke the hedges, trampled on the crops, and flattened the mowing-grass. In five minutes he had done more damage than the royal foxhunt could have done in five days.
Garm heard a thump-thump coming along the riverbank, and he ran to the west side of the low hill on which the farmhouse stood, just to see what was happening. Suddenly he saw the giant stride right across the river and tread upon Galathea, the farmer’s favourite cow, squashing the poor beast as flat as the farmer could have squashed a blackbeetle.
That was more than enough for Garm. He gave a yelp of fright and bolted home. Quite forgetting that he was out without leave, he came and barked and yammered underneath his master’s bedroom window. There was no answer for a long time. Farmer Giles was not easily wakened.
‘Help! help! help!’ cried Garm.
The window opened suddenly and a well-aimed bottle came flying out.
‘Ow!’ said the dog, jumping aside with practised skill. ‘Help! help! help!’
Out popped the farmer’s head. ‘Drat you, dog! What be you a-doing?’ said he.
‘Nothing,’ said the dog.
‘I’ll give you nothing! I’ll flay the skin off you in the morning,’ said the farmer, slamming the window.
‘Help! help! help!’ cried the dog.
Out came Giles’s head again. ‘I’ll kill you, if you make another sound,’ he said. ‘What’s come to you, you fool?’
‘Nothing,’ said the dog; ‘but something’s come to you.’
‘What d’you mean?’ said Giles, startled in the midst of his rage. Never before had Garm answered him saucily.
‘There’s a giant in your fields, an enormous giant; and he’s coming this way,’ said the dog. ‘Help! help! He is trampling on your sheep. He has stamped on poor Galathea, and she’s as flat as a doormat. Help! help! He’s bursting all your hedges, and he’s crushing all your crops. You must be bold and quick, master, or you will soon have nothing left. Help!’ Garm began to howl.
‘Shut up!’ said the farmer, and he shut the window. ‘Lord-a-mercy!’ he said to himself; and though the night was warm, he shivered and shook.
‘Get back to bed and don’t be a fool!’ said his wife. ‘And drown that dog in the morning. There is no call to believe what a dog says; they’ll tell any tale, when caught truant or thieving.’
‘May be, Agatha,’ said he, ‘and may be not. But there’s something going on in my fields, or Garm’s a rabbit. That dog was frightened. And why should he come yammering in the night when he could sneak in at the back door with the milk in the morning?’
‘Don’t stand there arguing!’ said she. ‘If you believe the dog, then take his advice: be bold and quick!’
‘Easier said than done,’ answered Giles; for, indeed, he believed quite half of Garm’s tale. In the small hours of the night giants seem less unlikely.
Still, property is property; and Farmer Giles had a short way with trespassers that few could outface. So he pulled on his breeches, and went down into the kitchen and took his blunderbuss from the wall. Some may well ask what a blunderbuss was. Indeed, this very question, it is said, was put to the Four Wise Clerks of Oxenford, and after thought they replied: ‘A blunderbuss is a short gun with a large bore firing many balls or slugs, and capable of doing execution within a limited range without exact aim. (Now superseded in civilised countries by other firearms.)’
However, Farmer Giles’s blunderbuss had a wide mouth that opened like a horn, and it did not fire balls or slugs, but anything that he could spare to stuff in. And it did not do execution, because he seldom loaded it, and never let it off. The sight of it was usually enough for his purpose. And this country was not yet civilised, for the blunderbuss was not superseded: it was indeed the only kind of gun that there was, and rare at that. People preferred bows and arrows and used gunpowder mostly for fireworks.
Well then, Farmer Giles took down the blunderbuss, and he put in a good charge of powder, just in case extreme measures should be required; and into the wide mouth he stuffed old nails and bits of wire, pieces of broken pot, bones and stones and other rubbish. Then he drew on his top-boots and his overcoat, and he went out through the kitchen garden.
The moon was low behind him, and he could see nothing worse than the long black shadows of bushes and trees, but he could hear a dreadful stamping-stumping coming up the side of the hill. He did not feel either bold or quick, whatever Agatha might say; but he was more anxious about his property than his skin. So, feeling a bit loose about the belt, he walked towards the brow of the hill.
Suddenly up over the edge of it the giant’s face appeared, pale in the moonlight, which glittered in his large round eyes. His feet were still far below, making holes in the fields. The moon dazzled the giant and he did not see the farmer; but Farmer Giles saw him and was scared out of his wits. He pulled the trigger without thinking, and the blunderbuss went off with a staggering bang. By luck it was pointed more or less at the giant’s large ugly face. Out flew the rubbish, and the stones and the bones, and the bits of crock and wire, and half a dozen nails. And since the range was indeed limited, by chance and no choice of the farmer’s many of these things struck the giant: a piece of pot went in his eye, and a large nail stuck in his nose.
‘Blast!’ said the giant in his vulgar fashion. ‘I’m stung!’ The noise had made no impression on him (he was rather deaf), but he did not like the nail. It was a long time since he had met any insect fierce enough to pierce his thick skin; but he had heard tell that away East, in the Fens, there were dragonflies that could bite like hot pincers. He thought that he must have run into something of the kind.
‘Nasty unhealthy parts, evidently,’ said he. ‘I shan’t go any further this way tonight.’
So he picked up a couple of sheep off the hill-side, to eat when he got home, and went back over the river, making off about nor-nor-west at a great pace. He found his way home again in the end, for he was at last going in the right direction; but the bottom was burned off his copper pot.
As for Farmer Giles, when the blunderbuss went off it knocked him over flat on his back; and there he lay looking at the sky and wondering if the giant’s feet would miss him as they passed by. But nothing happened, and the stamping-stumping died away in the distance. So he got up, rubbed his shoulder, and picked up the blunderbuss. Then suddenly he heard the sound of people cheering.
Most of the people of Ham had been looking out of their windows; a few had put on their clothes and come out (after the giant had gone away). Some were now running up the hill shouting.
The villagers had heard the horrible thump-thump of the giant’s feet, and most of them had immediately got under the bed-clothes; some had got under the beds. But Garm was both proud and frightened of his master. He thought him terrible and splendid, when he was angry; and he naturally thought that any giant would think the same. So, as soon as he saw Giles come out with the blunderbuss (a sign of great wrath as a rule), he rushed off to the village, barking and crying:
‘Come out! Come out! Come out! Get up! Get up! Come, and see my great master! He is bold and quick. He is going to shoot a giant for trespassing. Come out!’
The top of the hill could be seen from most of the houses. When the people and the dog saw the giant’s face rise above it, they quailed and held their breath, and all but the dog among them thought that this would prove a matter too big for Giles to deal with. Then the blunderbuss went bang, and the giant turned suddenly and went away, and in their amazement and their joy they clapped and cheered, and Garm nearly barked his head off.
‘Hooray!’ they shouted. ‘That will l
earn him! Master Ægidius has given him what for. Now he will go home and die, and serve him right and proper.’ Then they all cheered again together. But even as they cheered, they took note for their own profit that after all this blunderbuss could really be fired. There had been some debate in the village inns on that point; but now the matter was settled. Farmer Giles had little trouble with trespassers after that.
When all seemed safe some of the bolder folk came right up the hill and shook hands with Farmer Giles. A few—the parson, and the blacksmith, and the miller, and one or two persons of importance—slapped him on the back. That did not please him (his shoulder was very sore), but he felt obliged to invite them into his house. They sat round in the kitchen drinking his health and loudly praising him. He made no effort to hide his yawns, but as long as the drink lasted they took no notice. By the time they had all had one or two (and the farmer two or three), he began to feel quite bold; when they had all had two or three (and he himself five or six), he felt as bold as his dog thought him. They parted good friends; and he slapped their backs heartily. His hands were large, red, and thick; so he had his revenge.
Next day he found that the news had grown in the telling, and he had become an important local figure. By the middle of the next week the news had spread to all the villages within twenty miles. He had become the Hero of the Countryside. Very pleasant he found it. Next market day he got enough free drink to float a boat: that is to say, he nearly had his fill, and came home singing old heroic songs.
At last even the King got to hear of it. The capital of that realm, the Middle Kingdom of the island in those happy days, was some twenty leagues distant from Ham, and they paid little heed at court, as a rule, to the doings of rustics in the provinces. But so prompt an expulsion of a giant so injurious seemed worthy of note and of some little courtesy. So in due course—that is, in about three months, and on the feast of St Michael—the King sent a magnificent letter. It was written in red upon white parchment, and expressed the royal approbation of ‘our loyal subject and well-beloved Ægidius Ahenobarbus Julius Agricola de Hammo’.
The letter was signed with a red blot; but the court scribe had added:
Ego Augustus Bonifacius Ambrosius Aurelianus Antoninus Pius et Magnificus, dux rex, tyrannus, et Basileus Mediterranearum Partium, subscribo;
and a large red seal was attached. So the document was plainly genuine. It afforded great pleasure to Giles, and was much admired, especially when it was discovered that one could get a seat and a drink by the farmer’s fire by asking to look at it.
Better than the testimonial was the accompanying gift. The King sent a belt and a long sword. To tell the truth the King had never used the sword himself. It belonged to the family and had been hanging in his armoury time out of mind. The armourer could not say how it came there, or what might be the use of it. Plain heavy swords of that kind were out of fashion at court just then, so the King thought it the very thing for a present to a rustic. But Farmer Giles was delighted, and his local reputation became enormous.
Giles much enjoyed the turn of events. So did his dog. He never got his promised whipping. Giles was a just man according to his lights; in his heart he gave a fair share of the credit to Garm, though he never went as far as to mention it. He continued to throw hard words and hard things at the dog when he felt inclined, but he winked at many little outings. Garm took to walking far afield. The farmer went about with a high step, and luck smiled on him. The autumn and early winter work went well. All seemed set fair—until the dragon came.
In those days dragons were already getting scarce in the island. None had been seen in the midland realm of Augustus Bonifacius for many a year. There were, of course, the dubious marches and the uninhabited mountains, westward and northward, but they were a long way off. In those parts once upon a time there had dwelt a number of dragons of one kind and another, and they had made raids far and wide. But the Middle Kingdom was in those days famous for the daring of the King’s knights, and so many stray dragons had been killed, or had returned with grave damage, that the others gave up going that way.
It was still the custom for Dragon’s Tail to be served up at the King’s Christmas Feast; and each year a knight was chosen for the duty of hunting. He was supposed to set out upon St Nicholas’ Day and come home with a dragon’s tail not later than the eve of the feast. But for many years now the Royal Cook had made a marvellous confection, a Mock Dragon’s Tail of cake and almondpaste, with cunning scales of hard icing-sugar. The chosen knight then carried this into the hall on Christmas Eve, while the fiddles played and the trumpets rang. The Mock Dragon’s Tail was eaten after dinner on Christinas Day, and everybody said (to please the cook) that it tasted much better than Real Tail.
That was the situation when a real dragon turned up again. The giant was largely to blame. After his adventure he used to go about in the mountains visiting his scattered relations more than had been his custom, and much more than they liked. For he was always trying to borrow a large copper pot. But whether he got the loan of one or not, he would sit and talk in his long-winded lumbering fashion about the excellent country down away East, and all the wonders of the Wide World. He had got it into his head that he was a great and daring traveller.
‘A nice land,’ he would say, ‘pretty flat, soft to the feet, and plenty to eat for the taking: cows, you know, and sheep all over the place, easy to spot, if you look carefully.’
‘But what about the people?’ said they.
‘I never saw any,’ said he. ‘There was not a knight to be seen or heard, my dear fellows. Nothing worse than a few stinging flies by the river.’
‘Why don’t you go back and stay there?’ said they.
‘Oh well, there’s no place like home, they say,’ said he. ‘But maybe I shall go back one day when I have a mind. And anyway I went there once, which is more than most folk can say. Now about that copper pot.’
‘And these rich lands,’ they would hurriedly ask, ‘these delectable regions full of undefended cattle, which, way do they lie? And how far off?’
‘Oh,’ he would answer, ‘away east or sou’east. But it’s a long journey.’ And then he would give such an exaggerated account of the distance that he had walked, and the woods, hills, and plains that he had crossed, that none of the other less long-legged giants ever set out. Still, the talk got about.
Then the warm summer was followed by a hard winter. It was bitter cold in the mountains and food was scarce. The talk got louder. Lowland sheep and kine from the deep pastures were much discussed. The dragons pricked up their ears. They were hungry, and these rumours were attractive.
‘So knights are mythical!’ said the younger and less experienced dragons. ‘We always thought so.’
‘At least they may be getting rare,’ thought the older and wiser worms; ‘far and few and no longer to be feared.’
There was one dragon who was deeply moved. Chrysophylax Dives was his name, for he was of ancient and imperial lineage, and very rich. He was cunning, inquisitive, greedy, well-armoured, but not over bold. But at any rate he was not in the least afraid of flies or insects of any sort or size; and he was mortally hungry.
So one winter’s day, about a week before Christmas, Chrysophylax spread his wings and took off. He landed quietly in the middle of the night plump in the heart of the midland realm of Augustus Bonifacius rex et basileus. He did a deal of damage in a short while, smashing and burning, and devouring sheep, cattle, and horses.
This was in a part of the land a long way from Ham, but Garm got the fright of his life. He had gone off on a long expedition, and taking advantage of his master’s favour he had ventured to spend a night or two away from home. He was following an engaging scent along the eaves of a wood, when he turned a corner and came suddenly upon a new and alarming smell; he ran indeed slap into the tail of Chrysophylax Dives, who had just landed. Never did a dog turn his own tail round and bolt home swifter than Garm. The dragon, hearing his yelp, turned and s
norted; but Garm was already far out of range. He ran all the rest of the night, and arrived home about breakfast-time.
‘Help! help! help!’ he cried outside the back door.
Giles heard, and did not like the sound of it. It reminded him that unexpected things may happen, when all seems to be going well.
‘Wife, let that drafted dog in,’ said he, ‘and take a stick to him!’
Garm came bundling into the kitchen with his eyes starting and his tongue hanging out. ‘Help!’ he cried.
‘Now what have you been a-doing this time?’ said Giles, throwing a sausage at him.
‘Nothing,’ panted Garm, too flustered to give heed to the sausage.
‘Well, stop doing it, or I’ll skin you,’ said the farmer.
‘I’ve done no wrong. I didn’t mean no harm,’ said the dog. ‘But I came on a dragon accidental-like, and it frightened me.’
The farmer choked in his beer. ‘Dragon?’ said he. ‘Drat you for a good-for-nothing nosey-parker! What d’you want to go and find a dragon for at this time of the year, and me with my hands full? Where was it?’
‘Oh! North over the hills and far away, beyond the Standing Stones and all,’ said the dog.
‘Oh, away there!’ said Giles, mighty relieved. ‘They’re queer folk in those parts, I’ve heard tell, and aught might happen in their land. Let them get on with it! Don’t come worriting me with such tales. Get out!’
Garm got out, and spread the news all over the village. He did forget to mention that his master was not scared in the least. ‘Quite cool he was, and went on with his breakfast.’
People chatted about it pleasantly at their doors. ‘How like old times!’ they said. ‘Just as Christmas is coming, too. So seasonable. How pleased the King will be! He will be able to have Real Tail this Christmas.’
But more news came in next day. The dragon, it appeared, was exceptionally large and ferocious. He was doing terrible damage.
Tales From the Perilous Realm Page 10