"How did the ogre get up it then?" said Hoodie. "He didn't. He'd always been there and he had a' ogre's wife to cook his dinner, and he had a--a--oh yes, I know, he had a awful big billiard-table, and he used to use little boys' heads for the balls," continued Duke, his eyes wandering round the room for inspiration as he proceeded. "And," he went on, as he caught sight of a large mirror at the end of the room, "he was so big he couldn't get any plates big enough for him to eat off, so he used to have big looking-glasses for plates, and--and--he had a coal-box for a salt-cellar, and when he had a' egg for breakfast he had the shovel for a' egg spoon, and--and--the white muslin curtains was his pocket-hankerwitches, and----" here Duke came to a dead stop, but another gaze round the room provided fresh material, "and," he proceeded energetically, "the Venetian blind sticks was his matches, and his ogre's wife used to wash his hankerwitches in a lake, and that was his basin; and for soup she used a--oh I don't know what she had for soup--never mind that. But she had beautiful big earrings," his eyes at this moment happening to catch sight of Magdalen's side-face, "beautiful big earrings made of two shiny glass and goldy things for candles, like that one hanging up there, and----" "You're just making a rubbish story, Duke," said Maudie. "You just put in whatever you see. I don't call that a proper story at all. Is it, Cousin Magdalen?" "You're very unkind, Maudie," said Duke, dolefully, before Magdalen had time to reply. "It isn't a rubbish story. I was just going to tell you about one day when the ogre was very hungry----" "Well, what did he do?" "Well," repeated Duke, somewhat mollified, "one day when the ogre was very hungry, he couldn't find nothing to eat, and he said to his wife, 'Ogre's wife, I'll eat _you_, if you don't get me somefin to eat too-dreckly.' And his ogre's wife cried, and she said she'd go to the green-baker's and see if she couldn't get somefin for he to eat." "Go to the _where_, Duke?" said Magdalen, looking up from her work. "To the green-baker's, that's where they sell apples and pears and p'ums," said Duke. Maudie burst out laughing. "He means the green-_grocer's_," she said. "Oh, Duke, how funny you are!" "And how could the ogre's wife go and buy him things at shops if they were up on the top of a hill so big that nobody could get down?" "Oh," replied Duke, "'cos there was andnother hill just a very little way off that they could get on quite easily, like steps, and there was lots of shops on the nother hill--all kinds." "All shops for ogreses?" inquired Hec timidly. "No, in course not. Shops for proper people. But when the ogre's wife went to buy somefin for him to eat she had to buy a whole shop-ful--lots and lots--but I zink I've toldened you enough for to-day. I must make some more up first."