Jack and the Beanstalk

Once upon a time there lived a poor widow and her son Jack. They had nothing but a tumbledown cottage and a cow called Whitey. Every morning Whitey gave milk, and Mother took it to the market. That was how they lived.

But one morning Whitey gave not a single drop.

"Whatever shall we do now?" cried Mother. "Take the cow to the fair, Jack. We’ll sell her, and then we’ll think of something."

"Don’t worry, Mother," said Jack. "I’ll get a good price, you’ll see!"

He took Whitey by the rope and off he went. As he walked along the road, who should come towards him but a strange little old man. He had a grey beard, a crooked hat and very, very sly eyes.

"Good day, Jack!" said the old man. "Where are you off to?"

"To the fair, to sell our cow," said Jack, surprised. How did the old man know his name?

"Tell me, are you a clever lad? How many beans make two in one hand, two in the other and one in your mouth?"

"Five!" Jack blurted out.

"Right you are!" laughed the old man, and he opened his fist. On his palm lay five speckled beans, shiny as pebbles from a brook. "Here they are. Give me your cow and the beans are yours. They’re no ordinary beans. Plant them in the evening, and by morning they’ll have grown up to the sky."

"Really?" Jack’s mouth fell open.

Jack thought and thought, then handed over the rope and tucked the beans into his pocket.

Jack ran home, happy as could be.

"Mother, I’m back! Look what I got for Whitey!"

Mother looked at the five beans and threw up her hands.

"Oh, Jack, Jack! Our best cow for a handful of beans? What a fine trader you are!"

She snatched the beans and, plop, flung them out of the window. And she sent Jack to bed without his supper. He went to bed hungry and sad.

In the morning Jack woke up, and the room felt strange: green and dark, as if someone had covered the cottage with leaves. He looked out of the window, and what a wonder! A beanstalk had grown right under the window. It was thick as a tree, twisted like a rope, and so tall that its top was hidden in the clouds.

"The old man didn’t fool me!" whispered Jack.

And he began to climb. He grabbed the leaves and set his feet on the tendrils, higher, higher, higher still. The cottage below shrank to the size of a nut, and then it vanished altogether.

Up above the clouds a long straight road ran ahead. Jack followed it and came to an enormous house. On the doorstep stood a very, very big woman.

"Good morning, ma’am," said Jack, bowing politely. "Might you give me something for breakfast? I haven’t eaten since yesterday."

"Run away, boy, while you can!" she cried, waving her arms. "My husband the giant lives here, and he can’t stand boys. He’ll be home any minute!"

"Please," Jack begged. "I’m so hungry."

The giant’s wife sighed, led him into the kitchen and gave him a hunk of bread and cheese and a mug of milk. Jack hadn’t eaten half of it when, thump! thump! thump! the whole house began to shake.

"Oh dear, it’s him!" cried the giant’s wife. "Quick, into the oven!"

Whisk! and Jack was in the cold oven, peeping out through a crack.

In came the giant, so tall that his head brushed the ceiling. He sniffed the air and roared:

"Fee-fi-fo-fum! I smell a boy, he’s somewhere near!"

"What nonsense," said his wife, waving her hand. "You’re imagining things. Go and wash, and I’ll bring your breakfast."

The giant washed, ate three bowls of porridge, and then took sacks of gold out of a chest. He sat down to count: clink, clink, clink... and dozed off. He snored so loudly that the plates rattled on the shelf.

Quietly Jack crept out of the oven, snatched one little sack and ran! Along the road, to the stalk, down, down, and straight to Mother’s doorstep.

"Mother, look! Those beans weren’t so silly after all!"

They lived on that gold for a long time. But gold, like milk, runs out one day. And Jack climbed up again.

The giant’s wife didn’t want to let him in, but he begged so hard that she hid him in the oven once more. Once more the giant came, once more he roared "Fee-fi-fo-fum!", once more he had his breakfast. And then he bellowed:

"Wife, bring me my hen!"

She put a russet hen on the table. The giant said, "Lay!" and the hen, cluck-cluck-cluck, laid an egg. A golden one! The giant admired and admired it, and then he fell asleep.

Jack jumped out of the oven, tucked the hen under his arm and ran. From then on, Mother and Jack had a golden egg every morning.

But Jack was itching to have one more look at what was up there. The third time he did not go to the giant’s wife. He slipped into the house alone and hid in a big copper pot.

"Fee-fi-fo-fum!" thundered the giant. "I smell a boy, he’s somewhere near!"

He peered into the oven. Empty. He searched under the table. Nobody. But he never even looked at the pot. He sat down, ate, and said:

"Wife, bring me my harp!"

She brought the golden harp. The giant said, "Play!" and the harp played all by itself, so gently that in a minute the giant was snoring.

Jack climbed out of the pot, grabbed the harp and made for the door. But the harp was magic, and it cried out:

"Master! Master!"

The giant woke up, looked around, and there was Jack already running down the road with the harp in his arms.

"Stop!" roared the giant, and he rushed after him.

Thump! Thump! Thump! The ground above the clouds shook. Jack ran as fast as he could, but the giant was catching up: one of his steps was as long as ten of Jack’s. There was the stalk. Jack went down, the giant after him. The stalk swayed and creaked, and leaves flew in all directions.

"Mother! Mother!" Jack shouted from halfway down. "Bring the axe! Quick!"

Mother ran out with the axe. Jack jumped to the ground, seized it and chopped! Once! Twice! The third time, crack!

The stalk swayed, groaned and crashed down. And with it the giant tumbled to the ground so hard that the earth boomed. He got up, dazed, shook the leaves off himself and stomped away. He never came back again.

From then on Jack and his mother were never poor again. The hen laid golden eggs, the harp played for them in the evenings, and in the cottage there was always milk and bread.

And Jack bought Mother a new cow, as white as Whitey. And when the neighbours at the fair laughed that he had once given away a cow for a handful of beans, Mother would only sigh: "Oh, what a bargain he missed! He should have asked at least six beans for the cow."