A MYSTERIOUS OBJECT. 235 



brown ball which had raised her curiosity, and, on feeling its 

 surface, discovered, to her surprise, that, instead of being hard, 

 it was soft and yielding to the touch. Meanwhile, the people 

 above grew curious on their parts to see what was going on 

 within the pitfall, and some of them, spite of their fears, drew 

 closer to its edge, from which a few fragments, detached by 

 their weight, fell crumbling downwards. Piccoletta looked up 

 with a smile, partly of encouragement to her companions, 

 partly, perhaps, of self-complacency at her own superior 

 courage. At that moment, she heard a slight noise beside 

 her. Turning round, she beheld the ball in heaving motion, 

 and, presently, through a rent in its circumference, appeared 

 a living head. It was not the head of the Ogre ; but to Pic- 

 coletta, in her terror, it looked something like it, and she 

 thought even that she saw the points of the horrible tusks she 

 had once seen so hideously employed. Then all her courage 

 deserted her, and she fell senseless to the ground. 



The lookers-on above shrank backwards in dismay ; and, as 

 if they had beheld the Ogre himself striding up the sides of his 

 den, broke up their circle huddled together in confusion 

 and rapidly retreated. 



Presently, however, as if ashamed of their cowardice, they 

 stood still, and again turned their faces towards the quarter of 

 apprehended danger. Not a thing was visible on the smooth 

 sandy plain around the mouth of the pitfall ; nor, for awhile, 

 above it ; but then, rising suddenly from the centre of the 



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