Jack and the Beanstalk

There was once upon a time a poor widow who had a son named Jack and a cow named Milky-white. Every morning the cow gave the milk which they carried to the market and sold. But one morning Milky-white gave no milk, and they didn’t know what to do.

“What shall we do, what shall we do?” said the widow.

“Oh, mother, I’ll go and get work somewhere,” said Jack.

“We tried that before, and nobody took you,” said his mother. “We must sell Milky-white.”

“All right, mother,” says Jack. “I’ll sell Milky-white, and then we’ll see what we can do.”

So he took the cow’s halter in his hand and went to the market. While he was going, he met an old man who said to him: “Good morning, Jack.”

“Good morning to you,” said Jack and wondered how he knew his name.

“Jack, where are you going?” said the man.

“I’m going to the market to sell our cow there.”

“Oh, I have five beans,” said the man, “and let’s change: your cow for these beans.”

“You swindler,” says Jack, “it won’t go!“

“Ah! you don’t know what these beans are,” said the man. “If you plant them over-night, by morning they grow right up to the sky.”

“Really?” says Jack. “I don’t believe you.”

“Yes, that is so, and if this is not true, you can have your cow back.”

“Good,” says Jack and gives him over Milky-white’s and takes the beans.

Jack came home happily.

“So what, Jack?” said his mother. “I see you don’t have Milky-white, so you sold her. How much did you get for her?”

“You’ll never guess, mother,” says Jack.

“Oh no! Good boy! Five pounds, ten, fifteen… Or twenty?”

“No, just look: five magical beans.”

“What!” says Jack’s mother. “My son is a fool, such a dolt! Oh my dear Milky-white! Take that! Take that! Take that! And your precious beans will go out of the window.”

So Jack went upstairs to his little room in the attic, and he was very sad. At last he began to sleep.

When he woke up, the room looked so funny. The sun was shining into part of it, and all the rest was quite dark and shady. So Jack jumped up and dressed himself and went to the window. And what do you think he saw? The beans that his mother threw out of the window into the garden sprang up into a big beanstalk which went up and up and up till it reached the sky. So the man spoke truth!

The beanstalk grew up quite close past Jack’s window, so Jack opened it and jumped on the beanstalk which was like a big ladder. So Jack climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed till at last he reached the sky. And when he got there, he found a long broad road. So he walked along and he walked along and he walked along till he came to a great big tall house, and on the doorstep there was a great big tall woman.

“Good morning,” says Jack politely. “Could you give me some breakfast?” He was as hungry as a hunter.

“You want breakfast, don’t you?” says the great big tall woman. “It’s breakfast you’ll be if you don’t go away. My husband is an ogre, and he likes to eat boys broiled on toast.”

“Oh! Please give me something to eat. I’m very hungry, really and truly,” says Jack.

The ogre’s wife was a kind woman. So she took Jack into the kitchen and gave him some bread and some cheese and a jug of milk. Suddenly, Jack heard a terrible noise: someone was coming.

“Oh, it’s my husband,” said the ogre’s wife, “what shall I do? Here, come quick and jump in here.” And she put Jack into the oven just as the ogre came in.

The ogre was really big. At his belt he had three pigs, and he threw them down on the table and said, “Here, wife, broil me a couple of these for breakfast. Ah! What’s this I smell?”

“Nothing, dear,” said his wife. “Here, go and have a wash, and by the time you come back, your breakfast will be ready for you.”

So the ogre went off, and the woman told Jack, “Wait till he’s asleep; he always sleeps after breakfast.”

Well, the ogre had his breakfast, and after that he was asleep. Then Jack crept out from his oven, and while he was passing the ogre, he took one of the bags of gold under his arm and ran to the beanstalk. And then he threw down the bag of gold, which of course fell in to his mother’s garden. And then he climbed down and climbed down till at last he got home and told his mother and showed her the gold and said, “Well, mother, I was right about the beans. They are really magical, you see.”

So they lived on the bag of gold for some time. But at last the gold came to an end, so Jack decided to use the beanstalk again. So one fine morning he got up early and went to the beanstalk, and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed till at last he got on the road again and came to the great big tall house. There was the great big tall woman.

“Good morning,” says Jack, “could you give me something to eat?”

“Go away, my boy,” said the big tall woman, “or my husband will eat you for breakfast. But aren’t you the boy who came here before? My husband lost one of his bags of gold that day.”

“That’s strange,” says Jack, “I can tell you something about that, but I’m so hungry I can’t speak.”

The big tall woman was very curious, and she gave him something to eat. But soon he heard thump! thump! thump! and the ogre’s wife hid Jack in the oven.

All happened as it did before. The ogre said, “Wife, bring me the hen that lays the golden eggs.” So she brought it, and the ogre said, “Lay,” and it laid an egg of gold. And then the ogre began to sleep.

Then Jack crept out of the oven and caught the golden hen and went away. But this time he made some noise which woke the ogre. So the ogre woke up and howled, “Wife, wife, where is my golden hen?”

But Jack was running very fast to the beanstalk and climbed down quickly. And when he got home, he showed his mother the wonderful hen and said “Lay,” and it laid a golden egg every time he said “Lay.”

So they lived happily. But Jack was not content, and one fine morning, he got up early and went on to the beanstalk, and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed and he climbed till he got to the top. But this time he did not go to the ogre’s house. When he came near it, he waited behind a bush till he saw the ogre’s wife. She came out with a pail to get some water, and then he crept into the house and hid himself. Soon he heard thump! thump! thump! as before and saw the ogre and his wife.

“I smell the boy!” cried out the ogre. “I smell him, wife, I smell him!”

“Do you, my dear?” says the ogre’s wife. “It must be that little rogue that stole your gold and the hen that laid the golden eggs. He must be in the oven.” And they both rushed to the oven. But Jack wasn’t there, and they found nobody.

So the ogre sat down to the breakfast and ate it. After breakfast, the ogre called out, “Wife, wife, bring me my golden harp.” So she brought it and put it on the table before him. Then he said, “Sing!” and the golden harp sang most beautifully till the ogre fell asleep.

Then Jack crawled out and took the golden harp. But the harp called out, “Master! Master!” and the ogre woke up. Jack began to run very fast with his harp.

Jack ran as fast as he could, but the ogre followed him. When Jack got to the beanstalk, the ogre was not more than twenty yards away. The beanstalk shook with his weight. Down climbs Jack, and after him climbed the ogre. By this time Jack climbed down and climbed down and climbed down till he was home. So he called out, “Mother! mother! Bring me an axe, bring me an axe.” And his mother appeared with an axe in her hand.

Jack jumped down and took the axe and cut the beanstalk. The ogre fell down and died.

Then Jack showed his mother his golden harp, and it began to sing beautiful songs. Jack and his mother became very rich and they lived happily.

Rumpelstiltskin

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, “I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold.”

The king said to the miller, “That is an art which pleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her tomorrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test.”

And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, “Now set to work, and if by tomorrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die.”

Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller’s daughter, and could not tell what to do, she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to cry.

But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, “Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying?”

“Oh,” answered the girl, “I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it.”

“What will you give me,” said the manikin, “if I do it for you?”

“My necklace,” said the girl.

The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.

By daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was astonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller’s daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and the little man appeared, and said, “What will you give me if I spin that straw into gold for you?”

“The ring on my finger,” answered the girl. The little man took the ring, again began to turn the wheel, and by morning had spun all the straw into glittering gold.

The king rejoiced beyond measure at the sight of it, but still he had not enough gold, and he had the miller’s daughter taken into a still larger room full of straw, and said, “You must spin this, too, in the course of this night, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife.”

Even if she be a miller’s daughter, thought he, I could not find a richer wife in the whole world.

When the girl was alone the manikin came again for the third time, and said, “What will you give me if I spin the straw for you this time also?”

“I have nothing left that I could give,” answered the girl.

“Then promise me, if you should become queen, to give me your first child.”

Who knows whether that will ever happen, thought the miller’s daughter, and, not knowing how else to help herself in this strait, she promised the manikin what he wanted, and for that he once more spun the straw into gold.

And when the king came in the morning, and found all as he had wished, he took her in marriage, and the pretty miller’s daughter became a queen.

A year after, she born a beautiful child, and she never gave a thought to the manikin. But suddenly he came into her room, and said, “Now give me what you promised.”

The queen was horrorstruck, and offered the manikin all the riches of the kingdom if he would leave her the child. But the manikin said, “No, something alive is dearer to me than all the treasures in the world.”

Then the queen began to cry, so that the manikin pitied her.

“I will give you three days time,” said he, “if by that time you find out my name, then shall you keep your child.”

So the queen thought the whole night of all the names that she had ever heard, and she sent a messenger over the country to inquire, far and wide, for any other names that there might be.

When the manikin came the next day, she began with Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and said all the names she knew, one after another, but to every one the little man said, “That is not my name.”

On the second day she had inquiries made in the neighborhood as to the names of the people there, and she repeated to the manikin the most uncommon and curious. Perhaps your name is Shortribs, or Sheepshanks, or Laceleg, but he always answered, “That is not my name.”

On the third day the messenger came back again, and said, ‘I have not been able to find a single new name, but as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, where the fox and the hare bid each other good night, there I saw a little house, and before the house a fire was burning, and round about the fire quite a ridiculous little man was jumping, he hopped upon one leg, and shouted:

 

“Today I bake, tomorrow brew, the next I’ll

  have the young queen’s child.

Ha, glad am I that no one knew that

  Rumpelstiltskin I am styled.”

 

You may imagine how glad the queen was when she heard the name. And when soon afterwards the little man came in, and asked, “Now, mistress queen, what is my name?”

At first she said, “Is your name Conrad?”

“No.”

“Is your name Harry?”

“No.”

“Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?”

“The devil has told you that! The devil has told you that,” cried the little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the earth that his whole leg went in, and then in rage he pulled at his left leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two.