"Why, Jack! what are you driving your cow away from home for?" And Jack replied sadly: "I am taking her to town to sell her." Then he noticed that the butcher held in his hand some colored beans. They were so beautiful he could not keep from staring at them. Now, the butcher was a very mean man. He knew the cow was worth more than the beans, but he did not believe Jack knew it, so he said: "You let me have your cow, and I will give you a whole bag of these beans." Jack was so delighted that he could hardly wait to get the bag in his hand. He ran off home as fast as he could. "Oh, mother, mother!" he shouted, as he reached the house; "see what I have got for the old cow!" The good lady came hurrying out of the house, but when she saw only a bagful of colored beans she was so disappointed to think he had sold her cow "for nothing" that she flung the beans as far as she could. They fell everywhere--on the steps, down the road, and in the garden. That night Jack and his mother had to go to bed without anything to eat. Next morning, when Jack looked out of his window, he could hardly believe his eyes. In the garden where his mother had thrown some of the beans there were great beanstalks. They were twisted together so that they made a ladder. When Jack ran out to the garden to look more closely he found the ladder reached up, up--'way up into the clouds! It was so high he could not see the top. Jack was very excited, and called to his mother: "Mother, dear, come quickly! My beans have grown into a beautiful beanstalk ladder that reaches to the sky! I am going to climb up and see what is at the top." Hour after hour he climbed, until he was so tired he could hardly climb any more. At last he came to the end, and peered eagerly over the top to see what was there. Not a thing was to be seen but rocks and bare ground. "Oh," said Jack to himself. "This is a horrid place. I wish I had never come." Just then he saw, hobbling along, a wrinkled, ragged old woman. When she reached Jack she looked at him and said: "Well, my boy, where did you come from?" "I came up the ladder," answered Jack. [Illustration] The old woman looked at him very sharply. "Do you remember your father?" she asked. Jack thought this a queer question, but he replied: "No, I do not. Whenever I ask my mother about him she cries, and will not tell me." At this, the old woman leaned her face very close to Jack's and snapped her bright eyes. "_I will tell you_," she said, "for _I am a Fairy_!" The Fairy smiled. "Do not be afraid, my dear, for I am a good, good Fairy. But before I tell you anything, you must promise to do exactly as I say." Jack promised, and the Fairy began her story.