JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

Once upon a time there lived a poor widow. She had an only son named Jack, and a cow named
Rosie. They lived in a cottage and their most important thing was the cow. Every morning the
cow gave the milk. They carried the milk to the market and sold. But one morning Rosie didn’t
give any milk, and they didn’t know what to do.

“What shall we do now?” cried the widow.

“Don’t worry, mother! I’ll go find work somewhere,” said Jack.

“We tried that before, and nobody wanted you,” said his mother, “we must sell Rosie and use
the money to start a business, or something.”

Jack was upset, but he knew that they had no choice.

“All right, mother,” said Jack, “today is market-day. I’ll sell Rosie, and then we’ll see what we
can do.”

So he went to market with Rosie, feeling very sad. On the way to market, Jack met a man. The
man had a large, curly moustache and wore a green cloak. He looked with interest at Rosie and
then said, “Good morning, Jack.”

“Good morning to you. How do you know my name?” asked Jack.

“I know a lot of things, Jack. Where are you going?” asked the man.

“I’m going to the market to sell our cow.”

When the old man heard where Jack was going, he offered him some strange-looking coloured
beans for the cow.

“I will give you these beans in exchange for your cow,” suggested the man. “Take them,” he
said, “and you’ll never be sorry about it. They are not ordinary beans. They are magic beans. If
you plant them in the evening, they will grow up to the sky by morning.”

“Oh no,” replied Jack, “Rosie is all my mother and I have. I must get a good price for her at the
market.”

“With these beans, you will never have to worry about money again,” said the man with a
smile.

“Really?” said Jack.

“Yes, that is true, and if that doesn’t happen, you can have your cow back.”

In the end, Jack agreed and swapped Rosie for the beans. So Jack, put the strange-looking beans
in his pocket and started back for home. It was dark when he reached home. Excitedly, he went
to the kitchen.
“Back already, Jack?” asked his mother. “I see you haven’t got Rosie, so you sold her. I hope
you got a good price for her. How much did you get?”

“You’ll never guess, mother,” said Jack.

“How much? Two pounds, six, ten, fifteen, no, it couldn’t be twenty.”

“I told you couldn’t guess. What do you say about these beans? I swapped Rosie for these
magical beans and...”

“What?!” yelled Jack’s mother. “Are you so stupid as to give away my Rosie for a few beans?
Oh my God! You are a fool! And as for your magic beans, here they go out of the window.”

The mother was so angry. She took the beans and threw them out of the window. Then she said,
“And now go to bed without supper!”

So Jack went upstairs to his little room.

The next morning, Jack woke up and saw that his bedroom looked so strange. The sun was
shining into part of it, but all the rest was quite dark. So Jack jumped up, put on his clothes and
went to the window. And what do you think he saw? The beans his mother threw out the
window into the garden, grew into a big beanstalk. It was thicker than the trunk of an ancient
tree and had healthy green leaves. The beanstalk grew higher and higher till it reached the
clouds. He could not see the end of it. So the man spoke the truth.

“I will climb this beanstalk,” said Jack.

The beanstalk grew quite close by Jack’s window. So all he had to do was to open the window
and put his feet on to the beanstalk, which went up and up just like a big ladder. Jack was fit
and strong, so it was easy for him to climb the beanstalk. So Jack climbed and climbed and
climbed till at last he reached the sky.

When Jack reached the top, he saw a long, straight, wide road. So he walked along the road till
he came to a big tall castle and on the doorstep standing a big tall woman.

“Good morning,” said Jack. “Would you be kind and give me some breakfast?” He didn’t have
anything to eat the night before, you know, he was very hungry.

“"You want food, right?” asked the big tall woman. “YOU will be that food if you don't leave
now. My man is an ogre, he kills and eats people. You would better go away. He’ll soon be
back home.”

“Oh! Give me something to eat, please. I am very hungry,” said Jack.

Well, the ogre’s wife was not such a bad woman. She took Jack into the kitchen, and gave him
a piece of bread and cheese and water. Then the whole house began to shake with great thuds.
Somebody was coming to the house.
“It’s my old man,” said the ogre’s wife. “What shall I do? Quick, hurry up and jump in here!”

And she hid Jack in the oven quickly.

The ogre came in. He was terribly big. Three calves hung from his belt by their feet. He threw
them down on the table and said to his wife, “Here, wife, broil me two of these calves for
breakfast. Ah! What’s smell is this?

“Fee, fi, fo, fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman.”

“You are wrong, dear,” said his wife, “there is no one here. Here, you go and take a bath and
change your clothes, and when you come back your breakfast will be ready.”

So the ogre went off, and Jack wanted to jump out of the oven and run away but the woman
told him not to. “Wait till he’s asleep,” said she, “he always goes to sleep after breakfast.”

Well, the ogre had his breakfast. After that he went to a big chest and took out two bags of gold.
He sat down, put the bags on the table and began to count the money. Soon his head began to
nod, and he began to snore, and the whole house started to shake again.

Now Jack crept out of the oven on his tiptoes, and as he passed the ogre, he took one of the
bags of gold, put it under his arm, and ran off along the road till he came to the beanstalk. Then
he threw down the bag of gold, and it fell into his mother’s garden. Then he climbed down and
down till finally he got home.

Jack told his mother all that happened to him and showed her the gold.

“Well, mother,” he said, “I was right about the beans, wasn't I? They are really magic, you see.”

After some time, Jack and his mother ran out of gold, so Jack decided to try his luck at the top
of the beanstalk one more time.

One morning he got up early, and got on to the beanstalk. He climbed and climbed till at last he
came out on to the long wide straight road again. He walked along the road till he came to the
same big tall house. And there was the great big tall woman standing on the doorstep.

“Good morning,” said Jack, “would you give me something to eat?”

“Go away, my boy,” said the big tall woman, “or my man will eat you for breakfast. But aren’t
you the boy who came here once before? Do you know that day my man missed one of his bags
of gold?”

“That’s strange,” said Jack, “I could tell you something about that, but I’m so hungry. I can’t
talk when I am hungry.”
Well, the big tall woman wanted to know about the bag of gold. So she took him in and gave
him something to eat. But when he started to eat, they heard the great thuds of the ogre’s feet,
and his wife quickly hid Jack in the oven.

All happened as it did before. The ogre came in, said, “Fee, fi, fo, fum,” and had his breakfast.
Then he said, “Wife, bring me the hen that lays the golden eggs.”

So she brought the hen. The ogre ordered the hen, “Lay!” and it laid a golden egg. And then the
ogre began to nod his head, and to snore and slept.

Then Jack crept out of the oven on his tiptoes, seized the hen that laid the golden eggs, and
went off. But the hen cackled loudly and the ogre woke up, and just as Jack got out of the house
he heard the ogre’s voice, “Wife, wife, where is my golden hen?”

And the wife said, “I don’t know, my dear. I didn’t touch it.”

Jack run to the beanstalk and climbed down safely. And when he got home, he showed the
beautiful hen to his mother, and said “Lay” to it. The hen laid a golden egg every time he said
“Lay”.

Jack wanted to try his luck again at the top of the beanstalk. So one morning, he got up early
and got on to the beanstalk. He climbed and climbed till he got to the top. But this time when he
got near the ogre’s house, he waited behind a bush till the ogre’s wife came out with a pail to
get some water. Then he slipped into the house and hid in the cupboard.

After a short time, he heard the great thuds of the ogre’s feet, and the ogre and his wife came in.
The ogre cried out,

“Fee, fi, fo, fum,

I smell the blood of an Englishman.”

“If you can smell that bad little boy who stole your money and your magic hen, he is hiding in
the oven,” said the ogre’s wife. They both looked in the oven. But Jack wasn’t there. He was in
the cupboard.

So the ogre sat down and ate a very large breakfast. After breakfast, he called out to his wife,
“Wife, wife, bring me my golden harp.”

She brought his harp and put it on the table.

“Play!” ordered the ogre, and the harp started to play beautifully. And it played on till the ogre
fell asleep. He began to snore like thunder.

Then Jack came out of the cupboard and seized the harp, but the harp cried out, “Help!
Master!”

The ogre woke up, saw Jack with the harp and ran after him down the road.
Jack ran as fast as he could, and the ogre ran after him. When Jack came to the beanstalk, the
ogre was twenty meters away. Jack began to climb down, but the ogre was heavy and he was
afraid of a ladder, so he stood and waited. But at that moment the harp cried, “Master! Help!”

The ogre began to climb down the beanstalk, which shook with his weight.

Jack climbed down, and the ogre followed him. By this time Jack climbed down and down till
he was very near the ground. So he called out, “Mother! Mother! Bring me an axe! Bring me an
axe!”

And his mother run out of the house with the axe in her hand. When she came to the beanstalk,
she stood still, because she saw the ogre’s legs through the clouds.

But Jack jumped down, took the axe and cut the beanstalk. The ogre felt the beanstalk shook, so
he stopped to see what it was.

Jack hit the beanstalk with the axe, and the beanstalk was cut in two. Then the ogre fell down
and broke his head, and the beanstalk came down after.

After that Jack showed his mother the golden harp. Jack’s mother was happy to see the golden
harp and the hen. The harp now was happy with his new master and the hen quickly started to
lay golden eggs. Jack sold the golden eggs and showed people the golden harp and they became
rich. They also bought Rosie back. Later Jack married a beautiful princess, and they all lived
happily ever after.