Suddenly he rubbed his eyes in wonder, and looked and looked. It certainly was a marvellous sight. In the farthest corner of the garden was a tree quite covered with lovely white blossoms. Its branches were all golden, and silver fruit hung down from them, and underneath it stood the little boy he had loved.
Downstairs ran the Giant in great joy, and out into the garden. He hastened across the grass, and came near to the child. And when he came quite close his face grew red with anger, and he said, “Who hath dared to wound thee?” For on the palms of the child’s hands were the prints of two nails, and the prints of two nails were on the little feet.
“Who hath dared to wound thee?” cried the Giant; “tell me, that I may take my big sword and slay him.”
“Nay!” answered the child; “but these are the wounds of Love.”
“Who art thou?” said the Giant, and a strange awe fell on him, and he knelt before the little child.
And the child smiled on the Giant, and said to him, “You let me play once in your garden, to-day you shall come with me to my garden, which is Paradise.”
And when the children ran in that afternoon, they found the Giant lying dead under the tree, all covered with white blossoms.
STORIES SELECTED BECAUSE OF THEIR INSTINCTIVE INTEREST
THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT _Mother Goose_ THE KID THAT WOULD NOT GO _Folk Tale_ THE STORY OF LAMBIKIN _In Firelight Stories_ THE TEENY TINY LADY _In Firelight Stories_ THE STORY OF EPAMINONDAS AND HIS AUNTIE _Sara Cone Bryant, in Best Stories to Tell to Children_
NIGHTS WITH UNCLE REMUS _Joel Chandler Harris_ THE JUNGLE BOOKS _Rudyard Kipling_ THE JUST-SO-STORIES _Rudyard Kipling_ THE TALKING BEASTS _Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora Archibald Smith_ THE LITTLE RED HEN _In For the Children’s Hour_ MYTHS EVERY CHILD SHOULD KNOW _Hamilton Mabie_
THE LITTLE RED HEN _In For the Children’s Hour_ THE COMING OF THE KING _Laura E. Richards, in The Golden Windows_ THE COOKY _Laura E. Richards, in The Golden Windows_ THE STORY OF BABOUSCKA _In For the Children’s Hour_ THE LEGEND OF THE WOODPECKER _In For the Children’s Hour_ PICCIOLA _Celia Thaxter, in Stories and Poems for Children_
In the previous chapter we analyzed certain primitive phases of mental life as manifested in the instinctive acts of children. These manifestations of instinct form a basis for our story selection, guiding us toward a final and certain goal of child interest.