The Five Giants

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