But one day the Gigaboo became so big and strong that in turning around
it broke down the walls of the cavern, and finding itself at liberty,
the monster walked out into the lovely Valley of Mo to see how much
evil it could do.

The first thing the Gigaboo came to was a large orchard of preserved
apricots, and after eating a great quantity of the preserves it
wilfully cut off the trees with its sharp claws and utterly ruined
them. Why the Gigaboo should have done this I can not tell; but
scientists say these creatures are by nature destructive, and love to
ruin everything they come across.

One of the people, being in the neighborhood, came on the monster and
witnessed its terrible deeds; whereupon he ran in great terror to tell
the King that the Gigaboo was on them and ready to destroy the entire
valley. Although no one had ever before seen a Gigaboo, or even heard
of one, the news was so serious that in a short time the King and many
of his people came to the place where the monster was, all having
hastily armed themselves with swords and spears.

But when they saw the Gigaboo they were afraid, and stood gazing at it
in alarm, without knowing what to do or how to attack it.

"Who among us can hope to conquer this great beast?" asked the King, in
dismay. "Yet something must be done, or soon we shall not have a tree
left standing in all the Valley of Mo." The people looked at one
another in a frightened way, but no one volunteered his services or
offered to advise the monarch what to do.

At length Prince Jollikin, who had been watching the monster earnestly,