landed their boat, and were walking on the beach, whom should they see
but Huggermugger and his wife hastening towards them with rapid
strides. Their first impulse was to rush and hide themselves, but the
Huggermuggers came too fast towards them to allow them to do so. There
was nothing else to do but face the danger, if danger there was. What
was their surprise to find that the giant and giantess wore the most
beaming smiles on their broad faces. They stooped down and patted
their heads with their huge hands, and called them, in broken English,
"pretty little dolls and dears, and where did they come from, and how
long it was since they had seen any little men like them--and wouldn't
they go home and see them in their big house under the cliffs?" Mrs.
Huggermugger, especially, was charmed with them, and would have taken
them home in her arms--"she had no children of her own, and they
should live with her and be her little babies." The sailors did not
exactly like the idea of being treated like babies, but they were so
astonished and delighted to find the giants in such good humor, that
they were ready to submit to all the good woman's caresses.

Little Jacket then told them where they came from, and related his
whole story of having been shipwrecked there, and all his other
adventures. As he told them how Huggermugger had carried home the big
shell with him in it, sound asleep; how he had let himself down from
the mantel-piece, and had tried to escape by cutting at the door; and
how, when he heard Huggermugger coming, he had rushed into the boot,
and how he had pricked the giant's toe when he attempted to draw his
boot on, and how the boot and he were taken to the cobbler's--then
Huggermugger and his wife could contain themselves no longer, but
burst into such peals of laughter, that the people in the ship, who
were watching their movements on shore through their spy-glasses, and
expected every moment to see their companions all eaten alive or