So Jack went upstairs to his little room in the attic, and sad and sorry
he was, to be sure, as much for his mother's sake, as for the loss of
his supper.
At last he dropped off to sleep.
When he woke up, the room looked so funny. The sun was shining into part
of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. So Jack jumped
up and dressed himself and went to the window. And what do you think
he saw? why, the beans his mother had thrown out of the window into the
garden, had sprung up into a big beanstalk which went up and up and up
till it reached the sky. So the man spoke truth after all.
The beanstalk grew up quite close past Jack's window, so all he had to
do was to open it and give a jump on to the beanstalk which was made
like a big plaited ladder. So Jack climbed and he climbed and he climbed
and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed till at last
he reached the sky. And when he got there he found a long broad road
going as straight as a dart. So he walked along and he walked along
and he walked along till he came to a great big tall house, and on the
doorstep there was a great big tall woman.
“Good morning, mum,” says Jack, quite polite-like. “Could you be so kind
as to give me some breakfast.” For he hadn't had anything to eat, you
know, the night before and was as hungry as a hunter.
“It's breakfast you want, is it?” says the great big tall woman, “it's
breakfast you'll be if you don't move off from here. My man is an ogre
and there's nothing he likes better than boys broiled on toast. You'd
better be moving on or he'll soon be coming.”
“Oh! please mum, do give me something to eat, mum. I've had nothing to
eat since yesterday morning, really and truly, mum,” says Jack. “I may
as well be broiled, as die of hunger.”
Well, the ogre's wife wasn't such a bad sort, after all. So she took
Jack into the kitchen, and gave him a junk of bread and cheese and a jug
of milk. But Jack hadn't half finished these when thump! thump! thump!
the whole house began to tremble with the noise of someone coming.
“Goodness gracious me! It's my old man,” said the ogre's wife, “what on
earth shall I do? Here, come quick and jump in here.” And she bundled
Jack into the oven just as the ogre came in.
He was a big one, to be sure. At his belt he had three calves strung up
by the heels, and he unhooked them and threw them down on the table and
said: “Here, wife, broil me a couple of these for breakfast. Ah what's
this I smell?
Fee-fi-fo-fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
Be he alive, or be he dead
I'll have his bones to grind my bread.”
“Nonsense, dear,” said his wife, “you're dreaming. Or perhaps you smell
the scraps of that little boy you liked so much for yesterday's dinner.
Here, go you and have a wash and tidy up, and by the time you come back
your breakfast'll be ready for you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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