LESSON 60 JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK

Ⅱ

climbed kitch-en ear-li-er

dot-ted hus-band loud-ly

pump-kin prom-ised pos-sible

1. After Jack had climbed for some time, he began to feel tired, but still he kept on. He went right through a cloud, and the mist wet him to the skin.

2. He passed through the cloud and came into bright sunshine. He now found that the beans twined round some rocks in a new country.

3. He climbed over the rocks, and saw a road winding through green fields dotted all over with bright flowers.

4. After walking for some distance, he saw in front of him a grey stone castle 〔1〕 . As he felt tired and hungry, Jack went up to a door of the castle and knocked loudly.

5. A woman came in answer to his knock, and Jack asked for food. He offered to do some work in return for it.

6. The woman was glad to get someone to help her. She spoke kindly to him, and gave him bread and milk.

7. She then set him to carry apples into a store-room. Jack had never seen such large apples, for they were the size of pumpkins. It was hard work to carry them, and he soon felt tired.

8. The woman took pity on Jack, and told him to lie down and rest before the fire in the kitchen.

9. "You must go before nightfall," said she, "or my husband, the giant, will want you to be cooked for his supper."

10. Jack wanted to run away when he heard this, but the woman promised to wake him in time, and he was so weary that he soon fell fast asleep.

11. The giant came home early that day. When his wife heard him coming she waked Jack and told him to hide in an empty oven.

12. Hardly was Jack safely hidden when the giant came in. "Ho! Ho!" said he; "Wife, what's for supper? I smell fresh boy. Ho! Ho! bring him out!" "No," said his wife, "you are wrong, I have cooked two sheep for you: here they are," and she placed two whole sheep before him.

13. The giant ate a hearty supper. "Now, wife," said he, "bring out my lucky hen, I want some gold."

14. Jack peeped out of the oven and saw the giant's wife place a fine black hen on the table. The giant stroked the hen and said,

15. "Now, my bonnie hen,

　　　Do as you are told,

　Lay at once a large bright egg,

　　　Let it be of gold!"

16. The hen laid an egg on the table, then turned round, cocked her head on one side to look at her master, and cried, "Luck, luck, lucky! Luck, luck, lucky!" four times.

17. Jack saw that the egg was of a bright, golden colour. The giant picked it up and tossed it into a bag.

18. By-and-by the giant fell asleep and snored so loudly that the noise he made sounded like thunder. Jack stole out of his hiding-place, caught up the hen and ran as fast as he could from the castle.

THE GIANT ATE A HEARTY SUPPER.

19. "Luck, luck, lucky!" cried the hen, but the giant was sound asleep, and Jack reached the beanstalk in safety. He made as much haste as possible down the thick stem, and ran with the hen under his arm to his mother's cottage.

20. The widow was in tears, for she thought Jack was lost. The boy placed the hen on the table and said the rhyme that the giant had spoken. Down on the table rolled a golden egg. "Luck, luck, lucky!" cried the hen, and Jack thought she was quite right.

21. Jack told his mother of his adventures 〔2〕 , and how he had got the lucky hen. She knew the hen at once, as one which had been stolen from her husband some years before, by some robbers who took all that he had.

22. The eggs, which were of the purest gold, sold for a large sum, and the poor widow was able to buy her cottage and find plenty of food for herself and Jack. After a while the hen died, and Jack made up his mind to climb the beanstalk again in search of fresh wonders.

—————

All the land is happy,

　Sun is in the sky,

All the earth is singing—

　Why not you and I?

注释

〔1〕 castle: A strong building used for defence.

〔2〕 his adventure: What had happened to him.