FOR A CHILD

THERE was none so tall as this giant bold.
He had a name that could not be told,
A name so crooked no Christian men
Could say it over and speak again.
One day he came where a good man prayed
All alone in the forest shade.
Then the giant in wonder said:
'Why do you bend the knee and head?'
'I bend,' he said, 'because I be
The weakest thing that you can see.
To Christ who is so good and strong,
I pray for help to do no wrong.'
'Ho,' said the giant, 'when I see
One strong enough to conquer me,
I shall be glad to bend my knees,
Which are as stout as any trees.'
'But,' said the good man, sad and old,
'Yon stream is deep, the water cold.
Prayer is the Spirit's work for some.
Work is the prayer of the body dumb.'
'If that be prayer,' said the giant tall,
'The maimed and sick, the weak and small,
Across the stream and to and fro,
I shall carry and come and go,
Until the time when I shall see
Thy strong Christ come to humble me.'
So all day long, with patient hand,
He bore the weak from strand to strand.
At last, one eve, when winds were wild,
He heard the voice of a little child
Saying, 'Giant, art thou asleep?
Carry me over the river deep.'
On his shoulder broad he set the child,
And laughed to see how the infant smiled.
Up to his waist the giant strode,
While fierce around the water flowed;
His great back shook, his great knees bent,
As staggering through the waves he went.
'Why is this?' he cried aloud;
'Why should my great back be bowed?'
Spake from his shoulder, sweet and clear,
A voice,—'t was like a bird's to hear,—
'I am the Christ to whom men pray
'When comes the morn and wanes the day.'
'No,' said the giant, 'a child art thou.
Not to a babe shall proud men bow!'
He set the child on the farther land,
And wiped his brow with shaking hand.
'In truth,' he cried, 'the load was great,
Wherefore art thou this heavy weight?'
The little child said, 'I was heavy to thee
Because the world's sins rest on me.'
'If thou canst carry them all on thee,
Who art but a little child to see,
Thou must be strong, and I be weak,
And thou must be the one I seek.'
Therefore the giant, day by day,
Still kept his work, and learned to pray.
And his pagan name that none should hear
Was changed to Giant Christopher.