The History of Jack and The Beanstalk

     In the days of King Alfred there lived a poor woman. She was a widow and had an only child named Jack, whom she indulged to a fault. The consequence of her blind partiality was that Jack did not pay the least attention to anything she said. His follies were not owing to a bad disposition, but his mother had never checked on him.
     The poor woman one day talked with Jack with tears in her eyes. Her distress was great, and for the first time in her life, she had not enough money to purchase even a bit of bread for another day. Nothing now remains to sell but her poor cow. Jack began asking his mother to let him sell the cow in the next village and she at last consented.
     As he was going along. Jack met a butcher. The butcher inquired why he was taking the cow from home. Jack replied that he was going to sell it. The butcher held some curious beans in his hat that were of various colors and attracted Jack's notice. The butcher asked what the price of the cow was, offering at the same time all the beans in his hat for it.
     The bargain was struck instantly and the cow exchanged for the beans. Soon after that, Jack hurried home calling aloud to his mother before he reached the house, thinking to surprise her. When she saw the beans had taken root and sprung up surprisingly. The stalks were of and immense thickness and had so entwined that they formed a ladder almost like a chain in appearance.
     Without thinking twice, he began to climb the beanstalk. Up and up he climbed, until he reached the top. Jack saw a path that led to a big huge pile of silver and gold coins. He also saw a biggest table he had ever seen. Next t the table there was a huge chair. The table was covered with lots of delicious looking food. Feeling very hungry.
     Jack climbed up onto the chair and then onto the table. He started to eat the delicious food.
     Suddenly, he heard rumbling noise coming from a corner room. Jack looked into the dark corner and realized that the noise was coming from a sleeping giant. He was snoring loudly. Jack was really scared.
     Jack quickly jumped down from the table and grabbed some coins from the floor. Then ran as fast as he could and climbed back down the beanstalk.
     The next morning, Jack felt brave and climbed up the beanstalk again. This time he saw a goose with two golden eggs next to the sleeping giant.
     Jack tiptoed across the room toward the goose. Suddenly, he tripped and fell onto the floor with a crash.
     The giant woke up and saw Jack. He was very angry and shouted: "Fee, fi, fo, fum. I smell the blood of an Englishman. Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread."
     As Jack ran out of the castle he grabbed the goose and then hurried down the beanstalk. He was much faster than the big clumsy giant and quickly reached the ground.
     Jack called out, "Help! Help! Mother, quick bring the axe!" on hearing Jack's cries, his mother came running with the axe. Using all his strength Jack chopped down the beanstalk. The beanstalk was down tumbled and so did the giant. The giant laid dead on the ground.
     In the end, Jack and his mother were never poor again. They used some of the gold coins to buy another cow. The goose continued to lay golden eggs and they lived happily ever after.....

Adapted from :"Favorite Fairy Tales Series by Ursula Walks"