Jack and the beanstalk
In a remote village in a tiny cottage lived a widow who had a son named Jack. Their cottage was a modest one, a small table circled by little blue chairs, speckled green curtains for windows, and two tiny beds. They had a cow named Milky-white tied out in their yard, which was their only source of living. But one morning Milky-white gave no milk. Jack and his mother sat in utter confusion not knowing what to do! Devoid of any other option, the widow finally decided to sell the cow and use the money for their living. It would atleast solve their problem temporarily, till they found a better option.
So she thrust Jack with the responsibility. Jack started towards the market with Milky-white. He hadn’t gone too far when he met a funny old man. “Where you off to, little fella?” asked the man. “I am going to the market to sell my cow” came the reply.
“Oh ho! You don’t have to go far. I can buy your cow! In exchange, I’ll give you these five magic beans.”
“Magic beans? What use are those to me?”
“Oh ho! You’ll know! They are very special little fella!”
Little lazy Jack pondered for a while, and thinking it would save him a trip to the market, slipped those five magic beans into his pocket.
“Be careful not to eat those beans, son!” advised the old man, as he set off with Milky-white.
Back went Jack, and he got home before dusk. Jack’s mother thought of him as a fool to have brought some filthy looking beans which he called ‘magic beans’ instead of money! She scolded Jack and immediately threw the beans out of the window. Jack went to his room immediately, a little frowned. Moments later he was on his bed. Something was wrong.
When he woke up, the room looked very funny. The sun was shining into a part of it, and yet all the rest was quite dark and shady. It was like something huge was blocking the Sun. Jack went to his window and gasped- there was a huge beanstalk growing from his garden! It must have grown from the magic beans his mother threw away, thought Jack. Curious, he climbed out from the window onto the beanstalk, and climbed upwards. The stalk grew and grew until Jack reached the clouds. He was a bit scared by then and thought of getting back down. But the stalk kept growing upwards and Jack felt he saw stars and meteors hurtling past him. Finally, the stalk stopped growing and Jack had arrived at a huge door. He sneaked in through a hole and gawked around in awe- he was really tiny!
The furniture was all very huge- a gigantic blue chair towered above him, and the ceiling was as good as sky for him. Jack started looking around and wondered if it was a giant’s house. The thought of giants living there scared him, and that’s when the ground started quaking. Thump – thump – thump – sounded like giant footsteps! Coming towards the house! Jack quickly started looking for a way out. He saw a window, but it was too high up for him. There was a long curtain at the window, and Jack decided to try climbing it up to reach the window. He ran towards the curtain and clung to the soft green cloth. The door thundered open and a giant stood there. With trembling hands, Jack climbed up the curtain and onto the window sill. He peeked from behind the curtain, and saw two giants standing in the house. One was a female giant and it looked like they were arguing about something. Suddenly, she turned and started towards the window where Jack was perched! Thump – thump – thump – Jack quickly spun around and jumped out of the window. He landed with a soft thud in the mud below.
He got up and looked up towards the window, and in time, as some rocks came flying out of the window. Thinking that the giants were attacking him, he ran and hid behind a bush, while the rocks hit the mud. They were queer looking greenish coloured rocks, five of them in all. Jack slowly came out of his hiding place. In fact, Jack realised, they were not rocks at all. They were beans. Five green beans. They had already started to fume.