outside girth, you do. Well—if I was dealing with JACK
any one elect 'd say, three scarlet-runner beans AND THE
for the cow, but as you’re an old hand, andawary srTarx
bird, I’ll give you six.’

Jack eagerly closed the bargain. Such a chance
might never occur again, so he gave the man the
cow, and walked home with the six beans in his
hand. When his mother saw the beans, and heard
what Jack had to say, her patience forsook her;
she threw away the beans in a rage, and they were
scattered all over the garden. The poor woman
was very sad over her loss; she cried all the even-
ing, and she and Jack had to go supperless to
bed.

When Jack awoke next morning he was sur-
prised that the sun did not stream in at his
window in the manner it was wont to do, but
twinkled as through dense foliage. When he rose
from his bed, and went to the window, he saw to
his great astonishment that a large plant had
sprung up in the night and had grown ‘in front
of the cottage, and that its green leaves and
scarlet flowers obscured the light from entering
his chamber as fully as of old. He ran down-stairs
into the garden, and saw that the beans had taken
root, and had sprung up; the stalks were en-
twined and twisted like a stout trunk, or formed a
ladder, and this mounted quite out of sight, for
the clouds as they drifted by passed across the
bean without reaching the top.

Jack very speedily resolved to climb the bean
stalk and see whither it mounted.

In the meantime his mother had come forth, no
less astonished than himself. But when he told
her it was his intention to scramble up the bean
stalk, then she entreated, threatened, and forbade
him—he must not go. He would run extraor-
dinary risks ; he would break her heart.

Jack had been too long his own master, and too

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