"Fee
Fie
Fo
Fum..I smell the blood
of
an Englishman.
Be
he alive or be he
dead..I'll
grind his bones
to
make my bread."
Once upon a time there was a poor widow who
lived
with her bson Jack in a little house.
Their wealth
consisted solely of a milking cow. When
the cow grew
old the mother sent Jack to sell it. On his
way to the
maeket, the boy met a stranger.
"I will give you five magic beans for your
cow,"
the stranger offered. Jack was unsure and
hesitated.
But enticed by the idea of such an extraordinary
deal,
he decided to accept.
When he returned home, his mother was furious
and
reprimanded him sternly:
"You fool! What have you done? We needed the
money
to buy a calf. Now we don't have anything
and we are even
poorer than before. Only a fool would
exchange a cow for
five beans!" Jack felt guilty and sad.
Then, at the height of her exasperation, she
threw
the five beans out of the window and sent
Jack to bed
with no dinner.
The morning after, when he stepped outside,
Jack saw an
amazing site. A gigantic beanstalk reaching
into the clouds
had grown overnight.
"The beans must have really been magic,"
Jack thought happily. Being very curious the
boy climbed
the plant and once he reached the top he found
himself
over the clouds.
While looking around in amazement, Jack saw
a huge castle
of grey stone. "I wonder who lives there,"
he thought.
Jack was very surprised to see a path leading
to the
castle. He cautiously stepped on the
clouds and when
he saw that they held him up he walked to
the castle.
As he stood in front of the huge gate, his
curiosity
increased. He knocked several times on the
gigantic door,
but no one came to open it. Jack noticed that
the door was
unlocked.
With great effort, he was able to push it
until it creaked
open.
"What are you doing here?" a thundering voice
asked.
The biggest woman he had ever seen was scowling
at him.
Jack could only mutter:
"I am lost. May I have something to eat?
I'm very
hungry." The woman, who did not have children,
looked
looked at him a little more kindly: "Come
in, quick.
I will give you a bowl of milk. But be careful
because my
husband, the ogre, eats children. If
you hear him coming,
hide at once."
Jack was shaking with fear but, nonetheless,
he went
inside. The milk the woman gave him was very
good
and Jack had almost finished drinking it when
they heard a tremendous noise. The ogre was
home.
"Fee fi fo fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!"
the ogre shouted.
"Hide, quick!" the woman whispered, pushing
Jack in the
the oven.
"Do I smell a child in this room?" the ogre
asked
suspiciously, snifflng and
looking
all around.
"A child?" the woman repeated. "You see and
hear
children everywhere. That's all you ever think
about.
Sit down and I'll make your dinner."
The ogre still
grumbling, filled a jug of wine and drank
it all with his
dinner.
After having counted again and again all the
gold
pleces of his treasure, the ogre fell asleep
with his
feet propped up on the table. After a little
while, his
thundering snoring echoed throughout the castle.
The ogre's wife went to prepare the ogre's
bed and Jack,
who had sneaked out ot the oven, saw the gold
pieces on
he table and filled a little bag full of them.
"I hope he won't see me, otherwise he'll eat
me
whole, Jack thought while shivering with fear.
Jack's heart was beating faster, not just
faster because
he feared the ogre but because he was very
excited.
Thanks to all the gold coins, he and his mother
would be
rich. Jack ran down the path over the clouds.
Jack arrived at the top of the giant beanstalk
and began to descend as quickly as possible,
hanging on
the leaves and the branches.
When he finally reached the ground, he found
his mother
waiting for him. The poor woman had
been worried sick
since his disappearance.
She had been frightened by the giant beanstalk.
When she
saw Jack come down and hold up the bag full
of gold, she
burst out crying.
"Where have you been, my son? Do you want
me to die
worrying? What kind of plant is this?"
What . . ." Jack cheerfully interrupted her,
emptying
the contents of the bag before her.
"You see, I did the right thing exchanglng
that
cow for the magic beans. Now I'll tell you
the story..."
And Jack told his mother everything that had
happened in detail. In the days that followed,
the widow's
humble house was made into a comfortable home.
The
gold pieces were spent to buy a lot of things
Jack and his
mother never had before. Mother and son were
very
happy.
But as time went by, so did the money.
When the last
gold piece had been spent, Jack decided to
go back to
the castle above the clouds. This time
the boy went inside
through the kitchen and hid once again in
the oven.
Shortly after, the ogre came in and began
to sniff around.
"I smell children," he said to his wife. But
since she had
seen no one come in, she didn't pay any attention
to him.
After dinner, the ogre placed a hen on the
table. The
goose laid golden eggs. Jack saw the miraculous
goose
from a crack in the oven door. He waited
for the ogre to
fall asleep. jumped from the oven , snatched
the goose and
ran out of the castle.
The hen's squawking, however, woke up the
ogre.
"Thief! Thief!" he shouted. But Jack was already
far away. Once again, he found his mother
waiting
for him at the foot of the beanstalk.
"Is that all you stole? A goose?" she asked
Jack.
disappointed. But Jack ran, happy, to the
courtyard.
"Just wait," he said to his mother. As a matter
of fact
a little while later the goose laid a golden
egg and
continued to lay such an egg every single
day.
By now, Jack and his mother were very wealthy.
Their house was completely rebuilt.
Teams of
carpenters replaced the roof, added
two rooms and
elegant marble columns.
Then they bought paintings, tapestries, Persian
rugs,
mirrors and many other beautiful fumishings.
Their
miserable shack was transformed into a luxurious
home.
Jack and his mother had not forgotten their
previous years of poverty and deprivation.
So they chose
to welcome any traveller who needed food or
shelter.
But wealth doesn't always bring happiness.
Jack's mother suddenly fell ill or so it seemed.
But not
one of the many doctors who visited her could
discover
what her illness was. The woman was sad, ate
less and
less and showed no interest in life.
She rarely smiled, and then only when Jack
was near to
her. Her son tried to cheer her up but
nothing could save
the mother from her slow but inevitable
decline. Even a circus's famous clown, who
had been
invited especially for her entertainment received
only a
sad greeting.
Jack was desperate and didn't know what to
do.
All the goose's gold was not enough
to make his mother
well again. So he had another idea.
"What if I went back to the ogre's castle?
Maybe there I could find the answer," he thought.
He shivered with fear thinking about the giant's
hands
and huge mouth but the hope of helping his
mother
encouraged him to face the danger again.
One evening
he gathered all his courage and climbed once
more the
giant beanstalk. This time he entered the
castle through
an open window. He sneaked in the darkness
to the
kitchen and hid inside a huge pot until the
following day.
After dinner the ogre went to get his magic
harp, an
instrument that sang and played marvellous
music.
While listening to the harp's sweet melody,
the ogre fell
asleep. In his hiding place, Jack was captivated
by the
harp's song as well. When he finally heard
the ogre snore
loudly, he lifted the the golden harp and
quickly ran away
with the harp in his hands. The instrument
woke up the
ogre screaming:
"Master, master! Wake up! A thief is taking
me
away!" The ogre woke up suddenly, was disorientated
for a couple of seconds but then realized
what was
happening and began chasing Jack. The boy
ran as fast as
he could and the harp kept calling out.
"Shut up! Shut up! If you'll play for me, you'll
be happier.
Jack kept telling it breathlessly. He finally
arrived to
where the leafy top of the beanstalk poked
through the
clouds. Jack crept along the ground and slipped
down
the stalk quietly. The harp did not make a
sound and the
ogre didn't see Jack go down the plant. When
Jack got
down to earth he called to his mother,
"Look what I've brought you!" The harp began
to play an
enchanting melody and his mother smiled happlly.
But up there in the clouds someone else had
heard the
harp's beautiful song and Jack soon realized
with terror
that the thick beanstalk was shaking under
a very heavy
weight. The ogre was coming down to earth!
"Hide the harp and bring me an axe! I must
chop down
the plant before the ogre gets here," Jack
said to his
mother. They could already see the ogre's
huge boots when
the plant and the ogre finally crashed to
the ground. The
ogre fell down a cliff nearby. The ogre's
wife never found
out what had happened to her husband and as
time passed
Jack no longer felt in danger.
The magical sound of the harp cured his mother's
sadness and she was once again happy and cheerful.
The hen kept on laying golden eggs. Jack's
life had gone
through a lot of changes since he had accepted
the magic
beans. But without his courage and his wit,
he and his
mother could never have found happiness.
Next
story...CINDERELLA