Three good giants

He must have been a wonderful baby; because just as soon as he was born, instead of crying "Mie! mie! mie!" as any other baby would have done, he shouted out at the top of his lungs, "Drink! drink ! drink ! " There never were such lungs as his, everybody said. The old Doctor himself, and the Three Wise Old Women who were there, all declared that he had the biggest throat ever known, — not even excepting his father's. Now it happened that, of all the days of the year, the very day the Royal Herald had proclaimed, with flourish of trumpets, for the famous Feast of Tripes, was the very day on which the baby Prince was born. When the great news was carried to King Grandgousier, who was drinking and making merry with his friends, that he had a son, and that the young Prince was already bawling for his drink, his joy almost choked him, and he could only find breath to say in French : —

'' Que grand tu as! " — meaning " What a big throat thou hast! "

Everybody, including Queen Gargamelle, when she heard of it, the family Doctor, and the Three Old Wise Women, laughed at this joke of the King, and declared that it was the very best name that could be given to the royal babe. From that moment, they began, when talking to him or speaking of him, to call him little Prince Que-grand-tu-as! Although they ran these four words trippingly together, and nobody not in the secret would have thought it more than a very strange name, yet, somehow, it was too long; and so, little by little, they kept changing till the very oldest of the Three Old Wise Women, who had been, one hot day, half-dozing over the cradle, started up suddenly, crying : —

"I have" it T"

'Well, what have you?" called the second oldest, who was wide awake, sharply.

T The name for our dear little Prince ! "

" Don't be too sure of that, gossip. But why don't you say what it is?'' she snapped in an awful curiosity, and just the least bit jealous.

" GARGANTUA ! "

" Oh, my! " said the third oldest, who was a mild sort of old lady.

Some say that it was the lords and neighbors who were feasting on the tripes, when the old King cried out, Que grand tu as! who had shouted back that the young Prince ought to be called " Gargantua." I am rather afraid that the oldest of the Three Wise Old Women had been listening at the door of the royal banqueting hall, when she ought to have been in Queen Gargamelle's chamber.

CHAPTER III. GARGANTUA AS A BABY.

THEN Father Grandgousier heard that the name which the very oldest of the Wise Women had found for his son had been fixed for all time, he was delighted beyond measure, and said to Queen Gargamelle, while rubbing the palms of his great hands together : —

" So the witch has fastened' Gargan-tua' on my boy after all. By my crown ! what we have to do now is never to let Master Great Throat be empty. Now, tell me, my dear, where are we to get milk enough for that throat ? " The Queen looked at her baby ; then she looked at her husband ; then she looked into herself, and, finding nothing there ?miled,

to say an no d sa th

THE QUEEN LOOKED AT HER BABY.

"When Father Grandgousier called into the Queen's chamber, for a secret conference, his Royal Butler, who, first asking permission of their Majesties, called the Royal Steward, who called the Royal Dairy-

AN UNCOMMON BABY CARRIAGE.

man, who called the Chief Milkman. After a long talk behind closed doors, the whole party filed out of the royal apartments, the Chief Milkman holding in his hand a scroll, showing a large, red seal, and tied many times around with a broad, red ribbon, the Royal Butler closing the line and looking wise as a privy-councillor.

The scroll contained an order, authorizing the Chief Milkman — as there were not cows enough in the whole kingdom to give such milk as was needed for the young Prince — to furnish the remainder. So there w T ere brought to the royal cattle-yard seventeen thousand nine hundred and thirteen cows, all famed for the richness of their milk. Master Gargantua had, luckily, with the milk of these cows, enough to keep him alive until he was a year and ten months old. Then the wise old Doctor thought that the child ought to be taken more into the fresh air. In fact, what the Doctor really wanted, and w r as half crazy about not finding, was a carriage suited to the young Prince. A common baby carriage would not do at all. At last a youthful page, who dearly loved the strong oxen he had seen during the frequent visits he was fond of making to the royal stables, thought a fine large cart, not too pretty but very strong, and drawn by oxen, might do. The oxen were ready, but they could not be used until the Royal Carpenter had measured and made a cart that would hold the young giant.