"A long while ago, when you were only a tiny baby, your father and mother lived in a beautiful house, with plenty of money and servants and everything nice. They were very happy, because everyone loved your father for the kind things he did. He always helped people who were poor and in trouble. "Now, miles and miles away there was a wicked Giant. He was just as bad as your father was good. When he heard about your father he decided to do something very terrible. He went to your house and _killed him_. He would have killed you and your mother, too, but she fell down on her knees and begged: 'Oh, please do not hurt me and my little baby. Take all our treasures, but do not kill us.' "Now of course the money was what the Giant really wanted, so he said: 'If you promise that you will never tell your little boy who his father was, or anything about me, I will let you go. If you do tell him, I shall find out and kill you both.' "Your mother quickly promised, and ran out of the house as fast as she could. All day long she hurried over the rough roads with you in her arms. At last, when she could hardly walk a step further, she came to the little house where you live now. "Now, my dear Jack. I am your father's good fairy. The reason I could not help him against the wicked Giant was because I had done something wrong. When a fairy does something wrong she loses her power. My power did not come back to me until the day when you went to sell your cow. Then _I_ put it into your head to sell the cow for the pretty beans. _I_ made the beanstalk grow. _I_ made you climb up the beanstalk. "Now, Jack, this is the country where the wicked Giant lives. I had you come here so you could get back your mother's treasure." When Jack heard this he was very excited. "Follow the road," said the Fairy, "and you will come to the Giant's house. And do not forget that some day you are to punish the wicked Giant." And then she disappeared. Jack had not gone far before he came to a great house. In front of it stood a little woman. Jack went up to her and said very piteously: "Oh, please, good, kind lady, let me come in your beautiful house and have something to eat and a place to sleep." The woman looked surprised. "Why, what are you doing here?" she said. "Don't you know this is where my husband, the terrible Giant, lives? No one dares to come near here. Every one my husband finds he has locked up in his house. Then when he is hungry he _eats them_! He walks fifty miles to find some one to eat." When Jack heard this he was very much afraid. But he remembered what the Fairy had told him, and once more he asked the woman to let him in. "Just let me sleep in the oven," he said. "The Giant will never find me there." He seemed so tired and sad that the woman couldn't say no, and she gave him a nice supper.