Jack and the Beanstalkpage 3 / 4
Quietly Jack crept out of the oven.
Carefully he picked up two gold coins and ran as fast as he could to the top of the beanstalk. He threw the gold clown to his mother's garden and climbed after it. At the bottom he found his mother looking in amazement at the gold coins and the beanstalk. Jack told her of his adventures in the giant's castle and when she examined the gold she realized he must be speaking the truth.
Jack and his mother used the gold to buy food. But the day came when the money ran out, and Jack decided to climb the beanstalk again.
It was all the same as before, the long climb, the road to the castle, the smell of breakfast and the giant's wife. But she was not so friendly this time.
"Aren't you the boy who was here before," she asked, "on the day that some gold was stolen from under my husband's nose?"
But Jack convinced her she was wrong and in time her heart softened again and she gave him some breakfast. Once more as:ack was eating the ground shuddered and the great voice boomed: "Tee, Fi, Fo, Fum." Quickly, ackjumped into the oven.
As he entered, the giant bellowed:
"Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum,
I smell the blood of cm Englishman,
Be he alive or be he dead,
I'll grind his bones to make my bread."
The giant's wife put a plate of sizzling sausages before him, telling him he must be mistaken. After breakfast the giant fetched a hen from a back room. Every time he said "Lay!" the hen laid an egg of solid gold.
"I must steal that hen, if I can," thought Jack, and he waited until the giant fell asleep. Then he slipped out of the oven, snotched up the and rim for the top of the beanstalk. Keeping the hen under one arm, he scrambled Jack and the Beanstalk clown as fast as he could until he reached the bottom. Jack's mother was waiting but she was not pleased when she saw the hen.
"Another of your silly ideas, is it, bringing an old hen when you might have brought us some gold? I don't know, what is to be done with you?"