o all that. The Giant then gave him a hearty supper and a
good bed, and well he slept that night. In the morning the Giant had
him called up before the first lark was in the sky.

"Jack, my brave boy," says he, "I have got to be off to the other end
of the world to-day to fight the Giant of the Four Winds, and it is
time you were up and looking after your business. You have got to put
this house in order, and look after everything in it until I come back
to-night. To every room in the house and to every place about the
house you can go, except the stable. My stable door is closed, and on
the peril of your life, don't open it or go into the stable. Keep that
in mind."

Jack said he certainly would. Then the Giant visited the stable, and
started off; and as soon as he was gone, Jack went fixing and
arranging the house and setting everything in order. And a wonderful
house it was to Jack, so big and so great; and after that he went to
the castle yard and into every house and building there, except the
stable: and when he had visited all the rest of them, he stood before
the stable and looked at it a long time. "And I wonder," says Jack,
says he, "I wonder what can be in there, and what is the reason he
wants me on the peril of my life not to go into it? I would like to go
and peep in, and there certainly would be no harm."

Every door in and about the Giant's place was opened by a little ring
turning on a pivot in the middle of the door. Forward to the stable
door Jack then steps, turns the little ring, and the door flew open.
Inside what does Jack see but a mare and a bear standing by the
manger, and neither of them eating. There was hay before the bear and
meat before the mare.

"Well," says Jack, "it is no wonder, poor creatures, you are not
eatin'. That was a nice blunder of the Giant," and he stepped in and
changed their food, putting hay before the mare and meat before the
bear, and at once both of them fell to it and Jack went out and closed
the stable door. As he did so his finger stuck in the ring, and he
pulled and struggled to get it away, but he could not.

That was a fix for poor Jack, "And by this and by that," says he, "the
Giant will be back and find me stuck here;" so he whips out his knife,
and cuts off his finger, and leaves it there.

And when the Giant came home that night, says he to Jack, "Well, Jack,
what sort of a day have you had this day, and how did you get along?"

"I had a fine day," s