But he thought to himself, with a puzzled brow, "Well, you're a rum one, any how." Jack took a chair, and set to work,-- Oh! but he ate like a famished Turk; In sooth it was astounding quite, How he put the pudding out of sight. Thought the Giant, "What an appetite!" He had buttoned his coat together O'er a capacious bag of leather, And all the pudding he could n't swallow He craftily slipped into its hollow. {024} XXII. When breakfast was finished, he said, "Old brick, See here; I 'll show you a crafty trick; You dare not try it for your life:" And he ripped up the bag with a table-knife. Squash! tumbled the smoking mess on the floor, But Jack was no worse than he was before. "Odds splutter hur nails!" swore the monster Welch, And he gashed his belly with fearful squelch; Let the daylight in Through the hole in his skin,-- The daylight in and the pudding out, With twenty gallons of blood about; And his soul with a terrific "Oh!" Indignant sought the shades below. [Illustration: 049] {025} [Illustration: 050] JACK SCRAPES AND ACQUAINTANCE WITH THE PRINCE OF WALES I. Safe and sound o'er leagues of ground Jack so merrily capers away, Till Arthur's son (he had but one) He runs against at the close of day. The Prince, you know, was going to blow A conjuror's castle about his ears, Who bullied there a lady fair, And I don't know how many worthy peers. Said Jack, "My lord, my trusty sword And self at your princely feet I lay; 'T is my desire to be your squire:" His Royal Highness replied "You may." The Prince was _suave_, and comely, and brave, And freely scattered his money about; "Tipped" every one he met like fun, And so he was very soon "cleared out." Then he turned to Jack, and cried "Good lack! I wonder how we 're to purchase 'grub?'" {026} Said Jack so free, "Leave that to me, Your Royal Highness's faithful 'sub.'" Now night came on, and Arthur's son Asked "Where the dickens are we to lodge?" "Sir," answered Jack, "your brain do n't rack, You may trust to me for a crafty 'dodge:' A Giant high lives here hard by; The monster I've the pleasure to know: Three heads he's got, and would send to pot Five hundred men!" The Prince said, "Oh!" "My lord," Jack said, "I 'll pledge my head To manage the matter completely right. In the Giant's nest to-night we 'll rest, As sure as a gun, or--_blow me tight!_" Off scampers Jack, the Prince aback With his palfrey waits beneath a rock; At the castle-gate, at a footman's rate, Jack hammers and raps with a stylish knock. II.