class="indent15">disappearing;

* "Where an' O where is my Highland laddie gone?"

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. 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, 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!"

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:

"I smell flesh of a man; yea, wife, tho' he prove but a

morsel,

Man tastes good." She replied, "Sure thou be'est failing

in eyesight;

'Tis but a young elephant, my sweetest lord, not a biped."

Down he crook'd his monstrous knees, and rested his hip-

bones,

Call'd for his hen, said "Lay so she, with a chuck cock-

a-doodle,

Dropt him an egg, pure gold, a refulgent, luminous

oval,—

That was her use:—when he push'd her aside, cried,

"Bring me the meat now,"

Gorged his enormous meal, fell prone, and lost recollection.

Jack from a saucepan watch'd his broad chest's monstrous

upheavals:

Then to the chamber above both dame and tiger ascended.

"Now for it, hist!" says Jack—"coast clear, and none to

behold me,"

Airily Jack stole forth, and seized the plump, money-

laying,

Priceless, mystical hen; ran forth, sped away to the bean-

stalk,

Heard from afar, then near, heavy tramps, as a pavior

hamm'ring,

Sprang down pod by pod, with a bounding, grasshopper

action,

Left the Colossus aghast at an edge of his own little

island,

Lighted on earth, whom she, that bare him, fondly

saluting,

Dropt a maternal tear, and dried that tear with her

apron,

Seeing him home and safe; and after it, all was a hey-day,

Lots of