Page:History of Jack and the giants (1).pdf/3

 parson replied, God made then child. You are out again quoth Jack, for God made them bulls but my father and his man Hobson, made oxen of them These were the witty exploits of Jack. The parson finding himself fool'd, trudg'd away, leaving Jack in a fit of laughter.

N those days, the mount of Cornwall was kept by a huge and monstrous, giant, of twenty-seven feet in height, and about three yards in compas of a fierce grim countenance, to the terror of all the neighbouring towns and villages. His habitation was a cave in the midst of the mount, neither would he suffer any living creature to inhabit near him; his feeding was upon other mens cattle, which often became his prey, for wh nsoeverwhensoever [sic] he had occasion for food, he would wade over the main land where he would furnish himself with whatever he could find.—For the people at his approach, would so sake their habitations! then would he seize upon their cows and oxen, of which he would think nothing to carry over on his back half a dozen at a time; and as for the and hogs, he would tie them round his waist like a bunch of of bandoliers. This he had for many years practised in Cornwall, which was very much impoverished by him.

But one day Jack coming to the town-hall, when the magistrates were sitting in consternation about the giant, he aked them what reward they would give to any person that would destroy him? They answered, he should have all the giant's treasure in recompence. Quoth Jack, then I myself will undertake the work