Scene VII.
One night Willie is wakened up by a cry of “Fire! Fire!” He dresses in a moment, and rushes out into the farmyard. Here he finds his master and the farm-servants running about, frantic with terror; pigs are squealing, geese cackling, everybody is shouting, but there is no water handy. The flames are making their way from room to room, and now reach the chamber of the farmer’s pretty daughter. She is still there; what is to be done? The staircase is burnt; no ladder will reach the window; and there stands the girl, in the midst of the smoke, screaming, and stretching out her arms for help. Willie looks on in despair. Suddenly the giant hands appear to him, and placing themselves against the side of the house, form a ladder with their fingers, up which he quickly springs. He catches the girl in his arms, and in a moment brings her down, safe and sound, to her weeping father.
Now I daresay my little readers have been sufficiently interested in these seven scenes in the life of Willie to wish to know what became of him. Well then, Willie had such good wages that he was able to send money to his mother, and as soon as he grew to be quite a man, he married the farmer’s pretty daughter, whose life he had saved. Everybody liked him, and he soon took the entire management of the farm.
But now do you know the meaning of these giant hands? They signify the strength and power arising from industry, talent, and perseverance. The giant hands will come to help all those who, in the right way, try to help themselves.
When Willie was a rich farmer and had a large family, he used to say to his children: “Be honest, kind, industrious, and persevering; then the giant hands will come to help you.”
Multiplication is vexation,
Division is as bad,
The Rule of Three doth puzzle me,
And Practice drives me mad.
