OCR Text |
Show Daclch 1 8 y Fair j tale V GRAHAM 'BONN TWO GIANTS Old Mr. Giant had been Invited by Mother Nature to take Billle Brownie s place one day to p. a-calllng on some of the members mem-bers of her fam- ny. nillle Brownie had been delimited delimit-ed to let Old Mr. Giant go In his place. Old Mr. Giant as a rule liked to stay home In Fairyland better than to go on Journeys. Of course he traveled trav-eled a great lenl ,. l. u . niM about Falrylnnd. "crSJdiisr rk,nK,Tirr here und there, hither and thither, hut he didn't go forth Into tlie people's world. However, when Mo'ht'r Nature told him that" the Giant Sunflowers wanted to see a giant, he accepted the Invitation. Invita-tion. He took his old, crooked stick and put on his best high hat, which only made him look taller than ever. But Mother Nature had said: "Look your tallest. They want to see a real giant." It was early, early In the morning when Mr. Giant went forth. The dew was still on the ground, but he was wearing his thick great boots so he didn't notice such little things as dew-drops dew-drops upon them. . He hadn't very far to go when he met a great row of Giant Sunflowers. "Ah, welcome, friends and brothers," said Old Mr. Giant. "Ah, welcome, Great Giant," said the Giant Sunflowers. Tliey beamed at him and their great, broad, golden faces looked very smiling smil-ing and proud and pleased. "One of us Is going to talk for nil of us," the Giant Sunflowers said In chorus. Then one Giant Sunflower spoke. lie was the tallest of all. He was very, very huge and his height' was very great. lie was Just even with Old Mr. Giant, and these two huge, tall creatures crea-tures talked to each other. "I'm the Giant of Fairyland," said Old Mr. Giant. "I live in a big friendly friend-ly cave und the little Fairies. Elves, Brownies, Gnomes, Bogeys, members of the Oaf family. Old Witty Witch and all of the others come to see me. I tell them stories of the olden days when there were more giants about. 1 tell them tales my father nnd grandfather grandfa-ther and Great-Grandfuther Giant told me when I was but a little boy giant and not a big man giant such as I am now. "They were fine old tales they had to tell me nnd I pass them on to those In Fairyland. "But I want to hear about you, Great Giant Sunflower." The Giant Sunflower bowed a dignified, digni-fied, mojestlc bow and began ; "Years ago." he sulci, "the Indians cultivated members of my family. "We were prairie flowers, as no doubt you know. We call prairies our home. "In those days our plants were ol use, our leaves gave food to cuttle, our flowers gave a color dye and our seeds fed pigs and chickens and hens and roosters and such animals. "We used to be here, too. In the old days when the land belonged to the Indians. "We lived here as a family before others did. We truly belong - to the land. "So we have grown big as we feel entitled to be big. "We were big then, too. "Oh, years and years a,go, our families knew Indian In-dian life as members mem-bers of our family today know the life among the Just Even with pale faces as the 0ld Mr, Giant Indians called them. - "Tell your Fairyland people that we do belong to this land. They cultivated us In Europe after this. "But North America, we feel, is very much our own. As one giant to' another, an-other, you understand, my talk is big. I hope It does not sound conceited but only quite fitting." "Quite fitting," said Old Mr. Giant. "And only justly proud." |