two
heads. He spoke to Jack very civilly, for he was a Welsh giant, and
all the mischief he did was by private and secret malice, under the
show of friendship and kindness. Jack told him that he was a traveller
who had lost his way, on which the huge monster made him welcome, and
led him into a room, where there was a good bed in which to pass the
night. Jack took off his clothes quickly; but though he was so 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:--

"Though here you lodge with me this night,
You shall not see the morning light;
My club shall dash your brains out quite."

"Say you so?" thought Jack. "Are these your tricks upon travellers?
But I hope to prove as cunning as you." 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 hid himself in a dark
corner of the room. In the middle of the night the giant came with his
great club, and struck many heavy blows on the bed, in the very place
where Jack had laid the billet, and then he went back to his own room,
thinking he had broken all his 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 he 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 his 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, and went to bring two great bowls of hasty-pudding for their
breakfast.

Jack wished 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
slipped the hasty-pudding into this bag, while he seemed to put it
into his mouth. When breakfast was over, he said to the giant, "Now I
will show you a fine trick; I can cure all wounds with a touch; I
could cut off my head one minute, and the next put it sound again on
my shoulders: you shall see an example." He then took hold of the
knife, ripped up the leathern bag, and all the hasty-pudding tumbled
out upon the floor.

"Ods splutter hur nails," cried the Welsh giant