WONDERFUL GROWTH OF THE BEANSTALK

Edition and rights: Original English text from Project Gutenberg ebook #540, marked public domain in the USA. The literary text below is reproduced without AI rewriting.

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So Jack called his mother, and they both gazed in silent wonder at the
Beanstalk, which was not only of great height, but was thick enough to bear
Jack’s weight.

‘I wonder where it ends,’ said Jack to his mother; ‘I think I
will climb up and see.’

His mother wished him not to venture up this strange ladder, but Jack coaxed
her to give her consent to the attempt, for he was certain there must be
something wonderful in the Beanstalk; so at last she yielded to his wishes.

Jack instantly began to climb, and went up and up on the ladder-like bean till
everything he had left behind him—the cottage, the village, and even the
tall church tower—looked quite little, and still he could not see the top
of the Beanstalk.

Jack felt a little tired, and thought for a moment that he would go back again;
but he was a very persevering boy, and he knew that the way to succeed in
anything is not to give up. So after resting for a moment he went on.

After climbing higher and higher, till he grew afraid to look down for fear he
should be giddy, Jack at last reached the top of the Beanstalk, and found
himself in a beautiful country, finely wooded, with beautiful meadows covered
with sheep. A crystal stream ran through the pastures; not far from the place
where he had got off the Beanstalk stood a fine, strong castle.

Jack wondered very much that he had never heard of or seen this castle before;
but when he reflected on the subject, he saw that it was as much separated from
the village by the perpendicular rock on which it stood as if it were in
another land.

While Jack was standing looking at the castle, a very strange-looking woman
came out of the wood, and advanced towards him.

She wore a pointed cap of quilted red satin turned up with ermine, her hair
streamed loose over her shoulders, and she walked with a staff. Jack took off
his cap and made her a bow.

‘If you please, ma’am,’ said he, ‘is this your
house?’

‘No,’ said the old lady. ‘Listen, and I will tell you the
story of that castle.

‘Once upon a time there was a noble knight, who lived in this castle,
which is on the borders of Fairyland. He had a fair and beloved wife and
several lovely children: and as his neighbours, the little people, were very
friendly towards him, they bestowed on him many excellent and precious gifts.

‘Rumour whispered of these treasures; and a monstrous giant, who lived at
no great distance, and who was a very wicked being, resolved to obtain
possession of them.

‘So he bribed a false servant to let him inside the castle, when the
knight was in bed and asleep, and he killed him as he lay. Then he went to the
part of the castle which was the nursery, and also killed all the poor little
ones he found there.

‘Happily for her, the lady was not to be found. She had gone with her
infant son, who was only two or three months old, to visit her old nurse, who
lived in the valley; and she had been detained all night there by a storm.

‘The next morning, as soon as it was light, one of the servants at the
castle, who had managed to escape, came to tell the poor lady of the sad fate
of her husband and her pretty babes. She could scarcely believe him at first,
and was eager at once to go back and share the fate of her dear ones; but the
old nurse, with many tears, besought her to remember that she had still a
child, and that it was her duty to preserve her life for the sake of the poor
innocent.

‘The lady yielded to this reasoning, and consented to remain at her
nurse’s house as the best place of concealment; for the servant told her
that the giant had vowed, if he could find her, he would kill both her and her
baby. Years rolled on. The old nurse died, leaving her cottage and the few
articles of furniture it contained to her poor lady, who dwelt in it, working
as a peasant for her daily bread. Her spinning-wheel and the milk of a cow,
which she had purchased with the little money she had with her, sufficed for
the scanty subsistence of herself and her little son. There was a nice little
garden attached to the cottage, in which they cultivated peas, beans, and
cabbages, and the lady was not ashamed to go out at harvest time, and glean in
the fields to supply her little son’s wants.

‘Jack, that poor lady is your mother. This castle was once your
father’s, and must again be yours.’

Jack uttered a cry of surprise.

‘My mother! oh, madam, what ought I to do? My poor father! My dear
mother!’

‘Your duty requires you to win it back for your mother. But the task is a
very difficult one, and full of peril, Jack. Have you courage to undertake
it?’

‘I fear nothing when I am doing right,’ said Jack.

‘Then,’ said the lady in the red cap, ‘you are one of those
who slay giants. You must get into the castle, and if possible possess yourself
of a hen that lays golden eggs, and a harp that talks. Remember, all the giant
possesses is really yours.’ As she ceased speaking, the lady of the red
hat suddenly disappeared, and of course Jack knew she was a fairy.

Jack determined at once to attempt the adventure; so he advanced, and blew the
horn which hung at the castle portal. The door was opened in a minute or two by
a frightful giantess, with one great eye in the middle of her forehead.

As soon as Jack saw her he turned to run away, but she caught him, and dragged
him into the castle.

‘Ho, ho!’ she laughed terribly. ‘You didn’t expect to
see me here, that is clear! No, I shan’t let you go again. I am weary of
my life. I am so overworked, and I don’t see why I should not have a page
as well as other ladies. And you shall be my boy. You shall clean the knives,
and black the boots, and make the fires, and help me generally when the giant
is out. When he is at home I must hide you, for he has eaten up all my pages
hitherto, and you would be a dainty morsel, my little lad.’

While she spoke she dragged Jack right into the castle. The poor boy was very
much frightened, as I am sure you and I would have been in his place. But he
remembered that fear disgraces a man; so he struggled to be brave and make the
best of things.

‘I am quite ready to help you, and do all I can to serve you,
madam,’ he said, ‘only I beg you will be good enough to hide me
from your husband, for I should not like to be eaten at all.’

‘That’s a good boy,’ said the Giantess, nodding her head;
‘it is lucky for you that you did not scream out when you saw me, as the
other boys who have been here did, for if you had done so my husband would have
awakened and have eaten you, as he did them, for breakfast. Come here, child;
go into my wardrobe: he never ventures to open that; you will be safe
there.’

And she opened a huge wardrobe which stood in the great hall, and shut him into
it. But the keyhole was so large that it admitted plenty of air, and he could
see everything that took place through it. By-and-by he heard a heavy tramp on
the stairs, like the lumbering along of a great cannon, and then a voice like
thunder cried out;

‘Fe, fa, fi-fo-fum,

I smell the breath of an Englishman.

Let him be alive or let him be dead,

I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.’

‘Wife,’ cried the Giant, ‘there is a man in the castle. Let
me have him for breakfast.’

‘You are grown old and stupid,’ cried the lady in her loud tones.
‘It is only a nice fresh steak off an elephant, that I have cooked for
you, which you smell. There, sit down and make a good breakfast.’

And she placed a huge dish before him of savoury steaming meat, which greatly
pleased him, and made him forget his idea of an Englishman being in the castle.
When he had breakfasted he went out for a walk; and then the Giantess opened
the door, and made Jack come out to help her. He helped her all day. She fed
him well, and when evening came put him back in the wardrobe.