“Well, if you must, you must,” said the Princess; “and so let us see if we can’t hit on a plan. Just creep under the bed yonder, and mind and listen to what he and I talk about. But, pray, do lie as still as a mouse.”
So he crept under the bed, and he had scarce got well underneath it, before the Giant came.
“Ha!” roared the Giant, “what a smell of Christian blood there is in the house!”
“Yes, I know there is,” said the Princess, “for there came a magpie flying with a man’s bone, and let it fall down the chimney. I made all the haste I could to get it out, but all one can do, the smell doesn’t go off so soon.”
So the Giant said no more about it, and when night came, they went to bed. After they had lain a while, the Princess said,—
“There is one thing I’d be so glad to ask you about, if I only dared.”
“Only where it is you keep your heart, since you don’t carry it about you,” said the Princess.
“Ah! that’s a thing you’ve no business to ask about; but if you must know, it lies under the door-sill,” said the Giant.
“Ho! ho!” said Boots to himself under the bed, “then we’ll soon see if we can’t find it.”
Next morning the Giant got up cruelly early, and strode off to the wood; but he was hardly out of the house before Boots and the Princess set to work to look under the door-sill for his heart; but the more they dug, and the more they hunted, the more they couldn’t find it.
“He has baulked us this time,” said the Princess, “but we’ll try him once more.”
So she picked all the prettiest flowers she could find, and strewed them over the door-sill which they had laid in its right place again; and when the time came for the Giant to come home again, Boots crept under the bed. Just as he was well under, back came the Giant.
Snuff—snuff, went the Giant’s nose. “My eyes and limbs, what a smell of Christian blood there is in here,” said he.
“I know there is,” said the Princess, “for there came a magpie flying with a man’s bone in his bill, and let it fall down the chimney. I made as much haste as I could to get it out, but I daresay it’s that you smell.”
So the Giant held his peace, and said no more about it. A little while after, he asked who it was that had strewed flowers about the door-sill.