“Hush Alice,” warned Snow White.

“Don’t be foolish, or you may be sorry for it,” advised June.

“Bashful wore an emerald bowtie,” said Alice.

“So he did!” exclaimed the Queen, “This cannot be the one that June gave me.”

“Of course not. Snow White had seven,” said Alice, “And I must say it was stingy of her not to let me eat just one. But now that this foolish trial is ended, I will tell you exactly what became of Bashful the dwarf.”

At this everyone in the Throne Room suddenly became very quiet. Alice continued in a calm, mocking tone of voice:

“I will confess that I intended to eat the little dwarf for my lunch. So I crept into the room where he was last seen, while the Queen was out entertaining her guests from my valley. I approached the dwarf and told him not to make a fuss, for he would be inside of me in very little time. Yet nobody can teach these little fellows to be reasonable. Instead of keeping still, so I could eat him comfortably, he trembled so with fear, that he fell off the table into a small vase that was standing on the chair beside it. The vase had a very small neck. At first the dwarf stuck in the neck of the vase, and I thought I would get him after all, but he wriggled himself through and slid down into the deep bottom part of the vase … and I suppose he’s there still. Mind you, there’s so much gobbling that goes on in the Valley of the Giantesses, that I hardly think it need be considered such a big issue.”

All were astonished at this confession, and the Queen at once sent a maiden to her dressing room to fetch the vase. When she returned, the Queen looked down the narrow neck of the small ornament and discovered the lost Bashful, just as Alice had said that she would. After a few minutes, the Queen managed to set Bashful free.

Jean hugged Alice and told her how delighted she was that Alice had been declared innocent.

“But why didn’t you tell as at first?” she asked.

“It would have spoiled the fun,” said Alice.

“I was so worried about you,” said the Queen to Bashful, and went on to issue a royal decree that no small boys should be gobbled by giantesses in the kingdom for as long as she reigned in the land.

The Queen told Bashful privately that she had fought for Alice’s conviction, because she had a crush on Bashful. Snow White soon learned that the two had fallen in love, and finally admitted her feelings for Happy. As time went on, other palace maidens paired up with the remaining five dwarfs.

Snow White became one of the palace maidens, and remained there with the dwarfs. Sometimes she romanced Happy at normal size, and other times at giant size, which made her kisses amazing. Red Jean and Alice returned to the Valley of the Giantesses to give Mrs Grimble and Miss Yoop and Olda the annoying news that the Queen had passed a law against the gobbling of little boys … and dwarfs.

Later someone else made friends with Mrs Grimble, after climbing the Beanstalk. His name was Hans Andersen, a boy. Mrs Grimble explained that she’d like to eat him, but said, “Don’t worry. You’re perfectly safe. I haven’t eaten anyone since it was outlawed.”

“You mean to say you’ve eaten boys in the past,” said Hans, “and you’d be eating me if it hadn’t been banned.”

“I’m afraid so,” laughed Mrs Grimble, “I can’t tell you how much I’d love to do it.”