"No, he wasn't," returned Lefty. "He was going to eat the dinner, you know, and then die without paying for it. He wasn't a very good man." [Illustration: "AND THEN DIE WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT."] "No," remarked the story-teller. "But he was a very hungry man, in which respect he was just like the Giant I am trying to tell you about. And my, how the Giant roared with glee when he caught sight of Ebenezer. "'Good!' he cried, 'that's just what I wanted for my lunch. A nice fat boy.' "Then he reached down," said the Righthandiron, "and grabbed Ebenezer by the arm, and was about to eat him just as he would a piece of asparagus, when Lefty here cried out: "'Avast there, Skihigh! That isn't a nice fat boy. That is only a miserable Weasel.' "'Pah!' said Skihigh, with a face such as you put on when you take a horrid tasting medicine. 'Pah! I can't eat Weasels.' "And with that he put Ebenezer down on the road again and was about to walk along about his business when what did that foolish little Ebenezer do but up and deny that he was a Weasel! "'I'm not a Weasel,' he yelled. 'And I am a boy--and a fine boy at that!' "Skihigh stopped short, whirled about and rushed back to where Ebenezer was standing. "'What's that you say?' he said eagerly. "'I say I am not a Weasel, but a fine fat boy,' said the vainglorious Ebenezer stoutly. "'Then my friends, the Andirons have deceived me, have they?' roared the Giant. "'Yes,' replied Ebenezer. 'But I can't stand being called a Weasel.' [ILLUSTRATION: "JUST WHAT I WANTED FOR MY LUNCH."] "With that," said the Righthandiron, "Skihigh clapped Ebenezer into his market basket and then turned on Lefty and me. Lefty managed to get away, but I was caught." "What did he do to you?" asked Tom, trembling with excitement. "He tried to bite my head off," said Righty, with a laugh. "See those two dents on either side of my neck?" Tom looked, and sure enough there were the dents--not very deep, but quite large enough to be seen. "His teeth broke when he got that far," said Righty. "I'm pretty hard--but you see it needn't have happened at all if Ebenezer had only kept quiet about his not being a Weasel." [ILLUSTRATION: "TRIED TO BITE MY HEAD OFF."] "Was he eaten by Skihigh?" asked Tom. "I don't know," replied Righty. "Lefty and I didn't wait to find out, and we have never been back there since. I don't believe he did eat him, for two reasons. One is that after trying to bite my head off Skihigh hadn't teeth enough left to eat anything with, and the other reason is that I saw Ebenezer two years afterwards on his way to school one beautiful spring morning. I noticed him particularly because, although it was a lovely clear morning, he had his umbrella up and positively declined to put it down and carry it closed, because, he said, an umbrella couldn't possibly be a cane, and he wasn't going to try to make anybody suppose it was a cane."