e truth about him. I cannot say that he
does not make himself useful at times, for, in deep mines, he often does
more work, in one hour, than the miners could do without him in a whole
day; yet still he is a dark, designing, cruel character.

It is true that, some years ago, he went against a terrible pirate and
robber, who lived on the coast of Barbary, destroying his ships,
knocking his fortifications about his ears, compelling him to give up
all the Christian slaves he had in his dungeons, and making him promise
to behave better in future. It is true also that he helped Nelson,
Napoleon, Wellington, and Washington, to win their victories; but it was
not because he had any special love for either of them that he did these
things. No! whatever other people say of him, I say that he is a hasty,
cruel, treacherous, blood-thirsty monster. It was he who first persuaded
people to make guns, pistols, and cannon mortars, bombshells, and
congreve rockets, so that widows and orphans have been multiplied by
him, and millions of men, by his means, have been destroyed.

I have now come to the last of the giants, and his character shall be
summed up in few words. If you remember, I told you that, in winter
nights, Giant Flare was a very agreeable companion, and the same thing
may be said of Giant Rush. When the tea-urn simmers, and friends gather
round the winter tea-table, Giants Flare and Rush ought always to be
there. They are good company even when you have them one at a time; but
still better when they are together.

Giant Rush is thought to be younger than his brother Bounce; but of
this I have some doubt. Of the two, however, he is by far the most
industrious. He draws up water out of mines; he blows the bellows of the
blast-furnaces; saws timber; grinds and polishes metals, makes carriages
run without horses, and forces ships through the waters of the great
deep against both wind and tide. Besides these things, he has latterly
begun to print newspapers and books, and in this department he will make
himself more known than ever. These are his good deeds; but his bad ones
are a sad reproach to him.

Would you believe it that, some time back, he undertook to do more
destruction, and to destroy more lives in one hour, than Giant Bounce
could in a day? Few people thought better than I did of Giant Rush
before this; and, to speak the truth, I hardly thought the report was
true. But when I saw him, with my own eyes, fire sixty