found that he could be en-trust-ed with any-thing. One day, when he was
out on the moun-tains, where he had gone to ga-ther the flocks for the
shear-ing, heavy storms came on, and the floods de-lu-ged the val-ley,
sweep-ing the flocks and the herds a-way in their head-long course.
Wil-lie wise-ly kept his charge upon the moun-tain's side un-til the
wa-ters had in some de-gree sub-si-ded; but he was a-larm-ed when he
de-scend-ed in-to the val-leys to find that, in ma-ny pla-ces, the
wa-ter was im-pass-a-ble to his charge. As he stood in deep thought, the
gi-ant hands spread them-selves over the tur-bid wa-ters, form-ing the
most per-fect bridge im-a-gin-a-ble. He drove the sheep a-cross with-out
fear, and reach-ed his mas-ter's house in safe-ty, much to the joy of
all, who had giv-en him up for lost.

[Illustration: THE ESCAPE FROM THE FIRE.]

As Wil-lie lay down that night, full of gra-ti-tude for his great good
for-tune, and think-ing of his home, to which he knew he should so soon
re-turn to take hap-pi-ness to his fond mo-ther, he was sud-den-ly
a-rous-ed by screams of ter-ror and cries of a-larm. He jump-ed from his
bed, and put-ting on his clothes, rush-ed in-to the farm-yard, where, to
his hor-ror, he be-held his good mas-ter wring-ing his hands, and
a-ban-don-ed to grief; for the flames were fast de-vour-ing his
peace-ful house, and, worse than all, they had reach-ed the cham-ber of
his fa-vour-ite daugh-ter, whom he had in vain at-tempt-ed to res-cue,
for no lad-der could reach her win-dow, and the stair-case had long been
burnt. Wil-lie look-ed on in des-pair, for he could de-vise no means to
save the poor child; when sud-den-ly the gi-ant hands ap-pear-ed, and
plac-ing them-selves a-gainst the side of the house, form-ed a lad-der,
up which Wil-lie sprang with-out the least he-si-ta-tion. In a few
mo-ments he gain-ed the suf-fo-cat-ing cham-ber of the girl, and