loaves, and tons of cheeses, a barnful of onions;

Cows and calves, and creams, and gold eggs piled to the

ceilings:

Horses, goats, and geese, and pigs, and pugs by the

hundred.

Ah! but he found in a while his life of laziness irk-

some.

"Climb me," the bean-stalk said with a whisper. Jack,

reascending,

Swarm'd to the wonderful isle once more, and high

habitation;

Led by the fairy return'd to the fortress, pass'd to the

kitchen,

Unseen, hied him again to the saucepans' grimy recesses,

Peep'd out into the room. The plump wife, peony-

bulbous,

Toasted a constrictor, which roll'd in vast revolutions.

Then strode in, strong-booted again, with a roar, the

Colossus:

Call'd for his harp, said "Play." So this, with a sharp

treble ting-tong,

Play'd him an air, a delightful, long-drawn, national

anthem,

Play'd him an air, untouch'd, (the strings, by a fairy

magician

Wrought, were alive). Then he shouted aloud, "Wife,

bring me the meat now,"

Gorged his elongate meal; the snake in warm revolutions,

Making his huge bulk swell, disappear'd like Man's

macaroni:

After, he yawn'd and snored, fell prone, and lost recol-

lection.

So Jack seized the melodious harp, and bolted. A

murmur

"Master, master, a rascal, a rascal!" rang thro' the harp-

strings.

Quickly the monster awoke, and wielding a cudgel,—

an oak tree,—

Chased little Jack with a shout of mighty, maniacal

anger;

Jack to the beanpod sprang with a leap, and desperate

hurl'd his

Limbs in a downward, furious, headlong pre-cipitation,

But for a wink up-glanced; his foeman's ponderous

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!"

Original

JACK AND THE BEAN-STALK

Jack was a poor widow's heir, but he lived as a