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    THE

    FIVE GIANTS.

    [Illustration]

    New-York:
    LANE & TIPPETT,
    FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF THE
    METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
    200 Mulberry-street.




[Illustration]




    THE

    FIVE GIANTS.

    [Illustration]

    REVISED BY D. P. KIDDER.

    New-York:

    PUBLISHED BY LANE & TIPPETT,

    FOR THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION OF THE METHODIST
    EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 200 MULBERRY-ST.

    Joseph Longking, Printer.
    1847.




THE FIVE GIANTS.


When I was a boy, few things pleased me better than to hear a tale about
a giant. Silly and untrue as were the stories that I heard, they vastly
delighted me; but were you now to ask what information they gave me, or
what good I gathered from them, sadly should I be at fault for a reply.

But if a tale about giants, that was not true, and that added nothing
to my knowledge, amused me, why should not a story about giants, which
is true, and which gives good information, be equally entertaining to
you? I see no reason why it should not be so, and therefore it is my
determination to tell you the tale of the Five Giants.

Three of the five giants are old, so very old that you would hardly
believe me were I to tell you their ages; and the other two are much
older than many people imagine; but, notwithstanding the great age of
these giants, their strength is not in the least impaired. They can
travel as fast and do quite as much work as they ever did in their
youthful days.

By and by you shall know the real names of these five giants; but it
will answer my purpose better, and give you, perhaps, quite as much
entertainment, if, at first, I name them according to my fancy. The
three old giants, Flare, Roar, and Blow, are known in every part of the
world; but the two younger, Bounce and Rush, have not, as yet, traveled
quite as far as their brothers. For the most part, all five of them are
useful characters; but if once they are in a passion, and this is too
often the case, the sooner you are out of their way the better.

Giant Flare is somewhat yellow in complexion, with red hair, and has
many good and companionable qualities; indeed, in the winter, when
people like to gather round the friendly hearth, he is one of the most
agreeable creatures in the world. No wonder, then, that he should be so
much sought after. He is invited by the prince and the peasant, and
accepts the invitation of both freely, so that on the same day he is to
be seen in the poorest cot and the proudest palace.

But besides his companionable qualities, Giant Flare is a capital cook,
so much so, that he has been employed by all the crowned heads in all
the quarters of the world. He is very useful in mining operations, and
in smelting ore; and then, as a manufacturer, he is quite at home, being
equally skilled in making a copper saucepan, a brass warming-pan, a
silver snuff-box, and a golden sovereign.

You will begin to think well of Giant Flare; but truth is truth, and, as
I told you, all the five giants are sad fellows when in a passion. Giant
Flare has many a time burst out into a perfect frenzy, and done
mischief that could never be repaired. If he is not used well, he thinks
nothing of burning a person's house down. He has been the means of
destroying many fine forests, and, on one occasion, when in London, to
his disgrace be it spoken, with the assistance of one of his brothers,
Giant Blow, he set almost a hundred churches and as many as thirteen
thousand houses all in a blaze.

When Bonaparte set out to conquer Russia, Giant Flare resisted him, and
would not let him go further than Moscow; and when the Spanish Armada
invaded England, he boldly attacked the Spanish ships, and was one of
the principal means of scattering and putting them to flight. But now
let me tell you of Giant Roar.

This giant is about the same age as his brother of whom I have said so
much, and, like him, has done both kind and ill-natured deeds in his
time. He is fond of constructing baths, and fishing ponds, and canals,
and of rendering assistance in cultivating gardens. He is largely
connected with ships and sailors. Many think he has more power by sea
than by land; but some of his mad pranks will surprise you.

A long time after the Thames Tunnel was begun, under the river at
London, and when thousands and tens of thousands of pounds had been
spent, in an angry mood he set his foot against the bottom of the
river, and crushed the in tunnel. Since then he has behaved better, and
allowed them to finish the work; but, for a time, this prank of his
occasioned great confusion.

I have seen him myself, in his tantrums, play terrible tricks; I once
met him at the Falls of Niagara, where he roared like a Bedlamite,
foamed at the mouth worse than a mad dog, and at last flung himself
headlong from so high a precipice that he was dashed into a thousand
pieces. Whether the Americans and Canadians had used him ill, or not, I
will not say, but certain it was, that his rage appeared unbounded.

You will think that what I have already said of Giant Roar is bad
enough; but on one occasion he was even yet more ungovernable, for
rushing abroad in his fury, he destroyed more lives than ever had been
destroyed at one time since the world had been made. Many of his
victims struggled hard with him to the utmost; but he came upon them by
surprise, and they were neither swift enough to escape, nor strong
enough to resist him.

Giant Blow is kind, whimsical, mischievous, and dangerous, by fits. One
day, as I went by the common, he was good-naturedly helping a group of
school boys to fly their kites. I hardly think they could have managed
without his assistance; but, in ten minutes after, he tore two of their
kites all to shivers. The same day he snatched widow Woodward's shawl
from her back, and went off with it, broke half a dozen clothes lines,
tossed about the clothes, and then, all at once, violently pushed down a
large stack of chimneys. You see by these actions how little he is to be
relied on.

Giant Blow is a great traveler, for he sailed round the world with
Captain Cook, and helped Columbus to discover America. Indeed Columbus
could not have gone without him. Were he and Giant Roar to withdraw the
assistance they give to seamen, it would at once put an end to all
merchandise, and not a single ship would be able to sail upon the seas.

But though Giant Blow is one of the best friends in the world to
sailors, he often treats them very harshly, knocking their vessels to
pieces, and flinging them into the raging deep. Hundreds of gallant
ships, and thousands of hardy tars, has he destroyed in his time.

Giant Blow grinds a great deal of corn, and has a method of his own for
cooling the earth in hot weather. Common report says that, on some
occasions, he has removed the plague; and no physician on the earth has
effected such extraordinary cures as he has done. If every one that he
has kept in health were to give him a fee, of all doctors in the world
he would be the richest.

Giant Blow is well known in the West Indies, where he has, at different
times, made great confusion. When once his loud voice is heard, a
general terror and consternation are spread around; for it is well known
that, in his passions, he spares neither friend nor foe. With his great
strength he lays about him in all directions, stripping the trees of
their foliage, and furiously tearing them up by the roots, flinging the
roofs of the houses in the air, and battering down the walls on the
heads of those who dwell in them. On he goes, till loud cries of
distress are heard, and heaps of rubbish and rafters, and the dead
bodies of men, women, and children, lie mingled together in confusion on
the ground.

You have not, from what I have told you, I dare say, formed the highest
opinion of Flare, Roar, and Blow; and I fear that the