"Ugh!" roared out the giant, in a voice like fifty mad bulls; "wife,
wife, I say!"

"What's the matter, dear?" says wife.

"Here's one of your confounded needles in my boot. I wish to gracious
you'd be more careful how you leave them about!"

"A needle in your boot?" said the giantess, "how can that be? I
haven't been near your boots with my needles."

"Well, you feel there yourself, careless woman, and you'll see."

Whereupon the giantess took the boot, and put her great hand down into
the toe of it, when Little Jacket gave another thrust with his weapon.

"O-o-o-o!!" screams the wife. "There's something here, for it ran into
my finger; we must try to get it out. She then put her hand in again,
but very cautiously, and Little Jacket gave it another stab, which
made her cry out more loudly than before. Then Huggermugger put his
hand in, and again he roared out as he felt the sharp prick of the
thorn.

"It's no use," says he, flinging down the boot in a passion, almost
breaking Little Jacket's bones, as it fell. "Wife, take that boot to
the cobbler, and tell him to take that sharp thing out, whatever it
is, and send it back to me in an hour, for I must go a hunting today."

So off the obedient wife trotted to the shoemaker's, with the boot
under her arm. Little Jacket was curious to see whether the shoemaker