The Giant Hands eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 16 pages of information about The Giant Hands.

The Giant Hands eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 16 pages of information about The Giant Hands.

Title:  The Giant Hands or, The Reward of Industry

Author:  Alfred Crowquill

Release Date:  January 24, 2004 [EBook #10816]

Language:  English

Character set encoding:  ASCII

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Produced by Internet Archive; University of Florida, David Garcia, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration:  The poor home.]

Alfred Crowquill’s Fairy Tales.

* * * * *

  The

  Giant hands

  Or,

  The Reward of Industry.

* * * * *

London:  G. Routledge & co., FARRINGDON streetNew York:  18, Beekman street. 1856.

  London
  SAVILL and Edwards, Printers, CHANDOS street,
  Covent Garden.

THE GIANT HANDS.

Poor lit-tle Wil-lie re-turn-ed from the for-est la-den with as much wood as his fee-ble strength could bear.  He was hun-gry and wea-ry, and had a great sor-row at his heart, for he had lost his fa-ther in the ear-ly spring, leav-ing his mo-ther to toil for a scant live-li-hood to sup-port her-self and him.

He threw the wood up-on the cin-ders on the hearth, and quick-ly rais-ed a cheer-ful blaze, at which he warm-ed his na-ked, swol-len feet, as he watch-ed the smoke ma-king its fan-tas-tic ed-dies up the wide chim-ney, and a-midst the raf-ters of the low roof.  He heav-ed a deep sigh; for he saw no pot up-on the fire, which ought to have been bub-bling up with their fru-gal din-ner:  but, a-las! they had none.

“This must not be any long-er,” thought he, “for I am get-ting ve-ry big and strong, and have a pair of hands that ought not to be i-dle.  As my poor mo-ther gets weak-er, I should work for her; and as I grow in-to a man, she should not work any more, but sit by the fire and get the din-ner rea-dy, which I shall then be a-ble to la-bour for.”

[Illustration:  Meeting the hands.]

Wil-lie was of an in-dus-tri-ous mind, and did not love to sit i-dle when e-ven his ti-ny strength might be used to some end.

So he sat and lis-ten-ed for the foot-step of his poor mo-ther, who, he knew, would come home, wea-ri-ed with la-bour, to share her scan-ty crust with her boy.

He had not to wait long be-fore the latch lift-ed, and his mo-ther en-ter-ed.  She kiss-ed him, and threw her-self in-to a chair, with the tears of fa-tigue and ex-haus-tion in her eyes.

He em-bra-ced her, and whis-per-ed in-to her ear his firm resolve to start out in-to the world, and seek for la-bour, that he might no long-er be a bur-then to her.  Her heart sank at the i-dea; but she saw no o-ther means to save them from star-va-tion, as her fail-ing strength gave warn-ing of the in-e-vi-ta-ble e-vil.

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The Giant Hands from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.