```hob-nails `Shone from aloft: down crash'd big pods, and bean ```avalanches. `"Haste mother, haste mother, oh! mother, haste, and ```bring me the hatchet!" `Cried Jack, alighting on earth. She brought him an ```axe double-handed. `Jack cleft clean thro' the haulm; that Giant desperate ```hurl'd his. `Limbs in a downward, roaring, thund'ring pre-cipitation, `Crash'd to the ground stone-dead with a crash as a crag ```from a mountain. `"I'm your master now," said Jack to the harp at his ```elbow; `"There's your old 'un! of him pray give your candid ```opinion!" `Sweetly the mystical harp responded, "Master, a rascal!" [Illustration: 0019] JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK `Jack was a poor widow's heir, but he lived as a drone in ```a beehive, `Hardly a handstir a day did he work. To squander her ```earnings `Seem'd to the poor widow hard, who raved and scolded ```him always. [Illustration: 0023] `Nought in her house was left; not a cheese, not a loaf, ```not an onion; `Nought but a cow in her yard, and that must go to the ```market. `"Sell me the cow," cried she; then he sold it, gad! for ```a handful---- `Only to think!------of beans. [Illustration: 0025] [Illustration: 0026] ````She shied them out thro' the window, `Cursing him: hied to her bed, there slept, but awoke in ```amazement, `Seeing a huge bean-stalk, many leaves, many pods, many ```flowers, `Pod by pod Jack arose, till he came to a pod that alarm'd ```him. `Bridge-like this long pod stretch'd out, and touch'd on ```an island `Veil'd in vapour. [Illustration: 00237] ````A shape from the island waved him a signal, `Waved with a shining hand, and Jack with an humble ```obeisance `Crawl'd to the shape, who remark'd, "I gave those beans ```to ye, darling. `I am a fairy, a friend to ye, Jack; ````See yonder a Giant `Lives, who slew your own good father, see what a ```fortress! `Enter it, have no fear, since I, your fairy, protect you." `Jack march'd up to the gate, [Illustration: 0029] ````In a moment pass'd to the kitchen `Led by the savoury smell. This Giant's wife with a ```ladle `Basted a young elephant (Jack's namesake shriek'd and ```turn'd it). `Back Jack shrank in alarm: with fat cheeks peony- ```bulbous, `Ladle in hand, she stood, and spake in a tone of amuse- ```ment: `"Oh! what a cramp'd-up, small, unsesquipedalian object!" [Illustration: 0031] `Then from afar came steps, heavy tramps, as a pavior ```hamm'ring; `Out of her huge moon-cheeks the redundant peony faded, `Jack's lank hair she grabb'd, and, looking sad resolution, `Popt him aghast in among her saucepans' grimy ```recesses. `Then strode in, with a loud heavy-booted thunder of ```heel-taps, `He with a tiger at heel--her Giant, swarthy, colossal: [Illustration: 0033] [Illustration: 0034] [Illustration: 0035] `"I smell flesh of a man; yea, wife, tho' he prove but a ```morsel, `Man tastes good."