"Let me have him," said the giant. So he took him up just as if he had
been a rag-baby, and looked him all over, turning him from side to side,
and from head to feet.
O but Johnny was frightened, and expected every moment to be swallowed!
"Let's see," said the giant; "he always says 'Pretty soon.' No, that
isn't it. What is it, my fine fellow, that you always say to your mamma
when she asks you to do any thing for her?
"It isn't 'Pretty soon,' nor 'In a minute.' What is it? They all mean
about the same thing, to be sure, and bring every body to me in the end;
but I must know exactly, or I can't put you in the right place."
Johnny hung his head, and did not want to tell; but an extra hard poke
of the giant's big finger made him open his mouth and say with shame,
that he always said, "I'm going to."
"O that's it!" said the giant. "Well, then, you stand there."
So he unwound a bit of the web from his fingers--just enough so that he
could hold the Procrastinator's Primer--and stood him at the end of a
long row of children, who were saying over and over again, just as fast
as they could speak, "Going to, going to, going to, going to," just
that, and nothing else in the world.
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