The Five Giants

Excerpt

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....