We live on this mountain, see. It’s our mountain. Our granite, our precious stones, and nobody is entitled to come here, least of all this little man who is sleeping on the rocks.

I push him with my foot. “What sort of earthworm is this?”

My brother says, “Crush him dead.”

My other brother says, “He’s not worth the trouble. He can’t remain here, and if he goes higher up the mountain, the clouds will take him and carry him off.”

We decide to leave him be.

The Mountain Giant in The Donkey Cabbage, Yellow Fairy Book. Painting by Philip Burne-Jones.