pened the door, lo and behold! Jack wasn't there! Only
some joints of meat roasting and sizzling away. Then she laughed and
said, "You and me be fools for sure. Why, it's the boy you caught last
night as I was getting ready for your breakfast. Yes, we be fools to
take dead meat for live flesh! So eat your breakfast, there's a good
ogre!"

But the ogre, though he enjoyed roast boy very much, wasn't satisfied,
and every now and then he would burst out with "_Fee-fi-fo-fum_," and
get up and search the cupboards, keeping Jack in a fever of fear lest he
should think of the copper.

But he didn't. And when he had finished his breakfast he called out to
his wife, "Bring me my magic harp! I want to be amused."

So she brought out a little harp and put it on the table. And the ogre
leant back in his chair and said lazily:

"Sing!"

And, lo and behold! the harp began to sing. If you want to know what it
sang about? Why! It sang about everything! And it sang so beautifully
that Jack forgot to be frightened, and the ogre forgot to think of
"_Fee-fi-fo-fum_," and fell asleep and

did
NOT
SNORE.

Then Jack stole out of the copper like a mouse and crept hands and knees
to the table, raised himself up ever so softly and laid hold of the
magic harp; for he was determined to have it.

But, no sooner had he touched it, than it cried out quite loud, "Master!
Master!" So the ogre woke, saw Jack making off, and rushed after him.

My goodness, it was a race! Jack was nimble, but the ogre's stride was
twice as long. So, though Jack turned, and twisted, and doubled like a
hare, yet at last, when he got to the beanstalk, the ogre was not a
dozen yards behind him. There wasn't time to think, so Jack just flung
himself on to the stalk and began to go down as fast as he could, while
the harp kept calling, "Master! Master!" at the very top of its voice.
He had only got down about a quarter of the way when there was the most
awful lurch you can think of, and Jack nearly fell off the beanstalk. It
was the ogre beginning to climb down, and his weight made the stalk sway
like a tree in a storm. Then Jack knew it was life or death, and he
climbed down faster and faster, and as he climbed he shouted, "Mother!
Mother! Bring an axe! Bring an axe!"

Now his mother, as luck would have it, was in the backyard chopping
wood, and she ran out thinking that this time the sk