Chapter 1 The Meeting

      Horace is a giant. A really big giant. He is so much

bigger than the other giants that everyone is afraid of

him, even though he is very nice. When he sees

someone, he always smiles and says hello. His teeth

are so big that his smile frightens them and they run

away, so he lives in the woods all alone. He has lived

alone since he was a teenager, and he is now 297 years

old. That’s not old for a giant though. He has short,

black hair, a short beard and a mustache. If you ignore

his size, he looks like a very kind person. But since his

size is so hard to overlook, most people don’t know he

is a nice guy. More than anything, he wishes he had a

friend.

      Tiny is an elf. A really small elf. He is so much

smaller than the other elves that everyone teases him

and makes fun of him. They have done this his entire

life, all 24 years of it. He has no friends. He wishes that

if they were going to tease him, they would find

something else to tease him about. He thinks to

himself, "Why can’t they tease me about my stringy

blond hair that needs a cut, or my little pointed ears, or

the way I walk or talk?" One day he gets fed up with

the teasing, so he decides to live in the woods all alone

where no one will be around to tease him.

      When he’s alone in the woods, he stops to listen for

voices. Nothing! Pure silence. Well, maybe not silence,

but no people sounds. He is very happy, but gets bored

easily, so Tiny decides to climb a tree so that he can

see the sky. He climbed and climbed until he reached

the top. While he was sitting there Horace happened

by.

     "Hello there big guy," Tiny says. "Would you mind

stepping to the left? You’re blocking my view of the

sky."

      Puzzled by the little man’s reaction to seeing such 

a big giant Horace asks, "Aren’t you afraid of me?"

      "Why should I be? Are you going to tease me about

my size like everyone else?" replies Tiny.

      "No, I won’t tease you. Everyone is really small to

me, So your size isn’t that different from up here.

Aren‘t you going to scream and run away like everyone

else?" asks Horace.

      "Well, everyone is a lot bigger than me. If I was

scared of all the people bigger than me, I’d be scared

silly all the time," said Tiny. "Say, what are you doing

out here in the woods?"

      "I live here. Everyone is so afraid of me, they won’t

let me live in a town. So I just stay out here alone. I

would never hurt anybody, but they don’t care. Why are

you out here?" Horace asked.

      "I want to live out here so that no one ever picks on

me again. They always call me names and push me

around, so I’d rather stay out here alone," said Tiny.

      "That’s not nice. Those people are mean. If I had a

friend, I’d never let anyone pick on him," said Horace.

      "Well, if I had a friend I’d show everyone how nice

and sweet he is," Tiny said.

      "Hey, maybe we could be friends. We could live in

the woods together and travel together and…" Horace

began excitedly.

      "Just hold on a minute, how are we going to travel

together? I couldn’t keep up with you even if I ran,"

said Tiny.

      "Then I’ll carry you. You could ride on my shoulder

or in my pocket. Then you would always be taller than

everyone but me, and nothing could block your view of

the sky. What do you say?"

      "That sounds great! Say, I’m getting hungry. I know

where a giant bird’s nest full of eggs is, but I can’t

reach it," Tiny said, a little embarrassed.

      "No problem, I bet I can. I know where there is a

lake with cool water for us to drink, but it’s surrounded

by mountains bigger than I am. I can’t fit through the

gap," said Horace.

      "No problem! I bet I can," Tiny said.

      So Horace got the eggs from the high nest. It was

no problem for him to reach. Tiny got the water by

dragging a giant water skin tied to a big rope and filling

it in the lake. When it was full, Horace used the rope to

pull it out again. They ate and talked and laughed until

it started getting dark. Then they decided they had

better find a place to sleep. They found a clearing with

soft grass and stopped there for the night.

      They became the best of friends, traveled all over

and had a great many adventures together.