So the ogre went off, and Jack was just going to jump out of the oven
and run off when the woman told him not. “Wait till he's asleep,” says
she; “he always has a snooze after breakfast.”
Well, the ogre had his breakfast, and after that he goes to a big chest
and takes out of it a couple of bags of gold and sits down counting them
till at last his head began to nod and he began to snore till the whole
house shook again.
Then Jack crept out on tiptoe from his oven, and as he was passing the
ogre he took one of the bags of gold under his arm, and off he pelters
till he came to the beanstalk, and then he threw down the bag of gold
which of course fell in to his mother's garden, and then he climbed down
and climbed down till at last he got home and told his mother and showed
her the gold and said: “Well, mother, wasn't I right about the beans.
They are really magical, you see.”
So they lived on the bag of gold for some time, but at last they came to
the end of that so Jack made up his mind to try his luck once more up at
the top of the beanstalk. So one fine morning he got up early, and got
on to the beanstalk, and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and
he climbed and he climbed and he climbed till at last he got on the road
again and came to the great big tall house he had been to before. There,
sure enough, was the great big tall woman a-standing on the door-step.
“Good morning, mum,” says Jack, as bold as brass, “could you be so good
as to give me something to eat?”
“Go away, my boy,” said the big, tall woman, “or else my man will eat
you up for breakfast. But aren't you the youngster who came here once
before? Do you know, that very day, my man missed one of his bags of
gold.”
“That's strange, mum,” says Jack, “I dare say I could tell you something
about that but I'm so hungry I can't speak till I've had something to
eat.”
Well the big tall woman was that curious that she took him in and gave
him something to eat. But he had scarcely begun munching it as slowly as
he could when thump! thump! thump! they heard the giant's footstep, and
his wife hid Jack away in the oven.
All happened as it did before. In came the ogre as he did before, said:
“Fee-fi-fo-fum,” and had his breakfast off three broiled oxen. Then he
said: “Wife, bring me the hen that lays the golden eggs.” So she brought
it, and the ogre said: “Lay,” and it laid an egg all of gold. And then
the ogre began to nod his head, and to snore till the house shook.
Then Jack crept out of the oven on tiptoe and caught hold of the golden
hen, and was off before you could say “Jack Robinson.” But this time the
hen gave a cackle which woke the ogre, and just as Jack got out of the
house he heard him calling: “Wife, wife, what have you done with my
golden hen?”
And the wife said: “Why, my dear?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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