Page:Lange - The Blue Fairy Book.djvu/418

 ‘Ladies,’ said Jack, ‘I have put an end to the monster and his wicked brother; and I give you this castle and all the riches it contains, to make some amends for the dreadful pains you have felt.’ He then very politely gave them the keys of the castle, and went further on his journey to Wales.

As Jack had but little money, he went on as fast as possible. At length he came to a handsome house. Jack knocked at the door, when there came forth a Welsh giant. Jack said he was a traveller who had lost his way, on which the giant made him welcome, and let him into a room where there there was a good bed to sleep in.

Jack took off his clothes quickly, but though he was weary he could not go to sleep. Soon after this he heard the giant walking backward and forward in the next room, and saying to himself:

‘Say you so?’ thought Jack. ‘Are these your tricks upon travellers? But I hope to prove as cunning as you are.’ Then, getting out of bed, he groped about the room, and at last found a large thick billet of wood. He laid it in his own place in the bed, and then hid himself in a dark corner of the room.

The giant, about midnight, entered the apartment, and with his bludgeon struck a many blows on the bed, in the very place where Jack had laid the log; and then he went back to his own room, thinking he had broken all Jack’s bones.

Early in the morning Jack put a bold face upon the matter, and walked into the giant’s room to thank him for his lodging. The giant started when he saw him, and began to stammer out: ‘Oh! dear me; is it you? Pray how did you sleep last night? Did you hear or see anything in the dead of the night?’

‘Nothing worth speaking of,’ said Jack carelessly: ‘a rat, I believe, gave me three or four slaps with its tail, and disturbed me a little; but I soon went to sleep again.’

The giant wondered more and more at this: yet he did not answer a word, but went to bring two great bowls of hasty-pudding for their breakfast. Jack wanted to make the giant believe that he could eat as much as himself, so he contrived to button a leathern bag inside his coat, and slip the hasty-pudding into this bag, while he seemed to put it into his mouth.