American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1874-02-28
THE TALE OF A GIANT.

THE TALE OF A GIANT.
| LIKE dogs, and better than most dog
| l like Giant. He is monstrOus New
fcundland dog, black and white, witt
very long, curly hair, and lives in a town
| where there are great many very high
hills. A poor widow lives on Snow Hill
the very highest one, and she has two
grandchildren with her-Annie Brace, q
dear little girl about eight years old, and
baby sister of hers who hasn't as yet got
any name at all; their mother died last
autumn, and good Grandmother Brace
said:
"Well, I must take the poor little
orphans; they've nobody else to care for
themi"
So she brought them both up to her
tiny bit of brown house on the top of
the high hill. Ofcourse, baby must have
some new milk every day to drink out of
a queer little bottle which Grandma Brace
held in one hand while she put the other
under baby's head, which had scarce a
single hair on il. 1 wish you could have
seen Annie Brace trot down the hill to
Farmer Browns every morning with her
little tin pail to get the milk; it was more
than half a mile away, and some days it
was so cold Jack Frost nipped her nose
and ears. Annie did not care for that,
not she; for if ever Jack Frost was friends
with nybody it was with her; and as she
flew down the hill with steps as light as
fairy's he delighted to frOlic with her; he
pinched her cheeks till they were redder
than roses; he sent the warm blood ting
ling through every vein in her little body
till she felt like dancing jig with every
pretty bush by the road side; and he COW
cred her little hood with jewels that
b. aI 10 dc hrin
Everybody at Farmer Browns was glad
to see the little blue hood with diamonds
on it coming into the yard, but no one
more glad than Giant; he leaped on her,
put his great paws on her shoulders, and
said, by a thousand joyful signs: "Oh,
how glad l am to see you, Annie Brace!
Dear little Annie Brace, how glad 1 am to
see you"
And Annie wished, oh, so much! that
she could have him to always live with
her But then who would have looked
after Farmer Browns cows and sheep!
When Mrs. Brown had put the milk
into the little tinpail and given Annie
coOky, or an apple to put in her pocket
Giant stood by to see her do it-she must
go back. Sometimes Giant would run a
little ways up the road with her. barking
and frisking and scampering off into the
deepest snow-drift he could find, and then
frisk back again to look after the cows and
sheep in his masters barn-yard, while
Annie went on her way.
One day in February it showed all day,
harder than it ever showed even on Snow
Hill before; so Grandma Brace said, as
she stood at the window and saw the
great drifts on every side grow higher and
higher till she could see no fence, no gate
post, not even the ounce bush in the
garden; for all were covered under the
pure, white beautiful snow; and still it
showed and showed all that evening and
all the night through, till the two lower
panes in Grandma Braces kitchen win
dows were completely covered, and she
could scarcely see there in the morning,
it was so dark.
81 do hope Farmer Brown will break
road through pretty early" she said to
Annie, "or baby won't have any milk"
So Annie climbed into chair and
looked out to see the oxen come up the
hill blowing through the snow, as they
always did after great storm. She knew
she could not go for milk; for her little
body would have been quite covered up
in those deep drifts; no, not even if baby
were to starve Grandma Brace had no
idea of having baby starve; she made
arrowroot cruel to make the milk go
farther and put that in the bottle; but
baby wouldn't touch it; she made up
faces at it and spit it out. Grandma
worried little then, but she said:
81 know Farmer Brown will come by
and by; and he'll bring pail of milk
along"
But the morning passed and he didn't
come; the afternoon came and went and
he didn't come, and the twilight shadows
fell on the little brown house, halfburied
in the snow drifts, and he didn't come. 1t
was long, long day. Annie looked
YEARLY down the hill ten thousand times
to see the oXen's heads and poor grand
moaned and fretted and screamed by
turns, she was so hungry, poor thing!
And though the pantry was full of good
things she couldn't eat any-no cracker
soaked in tea, no spOnge-cake crumbled
in wine, no custard boiled or baked, no
catnip tea, nor barley Cruel, nor any other
liquid that could be thought of. So things
looked pretty serious as night came on;
Down at Farmer Browns things looked
serious, too The day before, what he
called "criak" came on, and he could |
not stir out of his bed. His boy, John,
had gone home on Il visit, and poor Mrs. |
Brown had to put on her husbands great
high boots and wade ont to the barn and
feed the oxen and cows and sheep and
hens And the good farmer was in such
pain she had all she could do TO battle his
IL
hot whisky, to give him a little ease, and
so she never once thought, all day long,
of baby's milk. Just as it began To grow
dark she started up and almost screamed,
for then she remembered it. But what
could she do? No woman could wade
the drifts between her and Grand /
ma Brace's-and no man either, for that /
if she could she must not |
leave her husband.
81 don't know but that child VIII /
starve!" she said There was nobody near
to hear her but Giant, who came up wag- /
ging his tail, rs if to comfort her.
81 know what III do she said, jump |
ing up quickly and going To the pantry. |
She called Giant and let him see her pour /
some milk into bottle, then tied it into /
"A basket.
Giant had often carried that basket /
with the mems dinner in it over to the !
pasture, and he began TO wriggle all over,
even to the tip of his long tail, as he saw ,
her get it. He knew he was to take it
But would he know where ? /
Could he understands
Take thDeto Annie Brace" she said; .
e to Annie Brace" looking straight into /
his eyes
He had often been there with his mas
tor and NO ,ruve d 1fitla ke rig gDl Tpf.I {