228 THE OGRE. 



an eye ; but when I did, oh ! I thought I should have died 

 with terror ! for what should I see at the bottom of the pit 

 but a hideous Ogre, with a pair of horrible pointed tusks, 

 longer than his own head or any of our bodies, and all be- 

 smeared with the blood of some unhappy creature like our- 

 selves, which he seemed at that moment drinking in, just as 

 our cattle draw in the sap of the elder and other trees. I 

 was much too frightened, at that time, to think how I had 

 fallen, after all my caution, into the monster's den, but sup- 

 pose, now, that I had failed to perceive it from its being under 

 the oak-tree on the side opposite to where I had ascended, and 

 that in creeping round the trunk I had got directly over the 

 pitfall, though the foliage concealed it from my view. 



"The Ogre was a long time occupied with his sickening 

 repast, but at length he let fall the body on which he had 

 been engaged, and rolled.his great eyes all round the cavern. 

 He was coming, I thought, to drag me down, but I suppose I 

 escaped his notice, for he returned again to his last victim, as 

 I at first imagined, to devour it, but instead of that he only 

 tossed it several times over, and at last, by a tremendous jerk, 

 threw it out of his den. Then he lay down, and pushing 

 and shoving his great body into the deep soft sand at bottom 

 of the pit, buried himself entirely all but his horrible tusks, 

 which remained sticking up above the surface. For a long 

 while I watched in breathless terror for his next proceeding, 

 but, as he continued quite motionless, I flattered myself that 



