w was.

"Off to bed with you!" she cried; and she was so angry that she threw
the beans out of the window into the garden. So poor Jack went to bed
without any supper, and cried himself to sleep.

When he woke up the next morning, the room was almost dark; and Jack
jumped out of bed and ran to the window to see what was the matter.
The sun was shining brightly outside, but from the ground right up
beside his window there was growing a great beanstalk, which stretched
up and up as far as he could see, into the sky.

"I'll just see where it leads to," thought Jack, and with that he
stepped out of the window on to the beanstalk, and began to climb
upwards. He climbed up and up, till after a time his mother's cottage
looked a mere speck below, but at last the stalk ended, and he found
himself in a new and beautiful country. A little way off there was a
great castle, with a broad road leading straight up to the front gate.
But what most surprised Jack was to find a beautiful maiden suddenly
standing beside him.

"Good morning, ma'am," said he, very politely.

"Good morning, Jack," said she; and Jack was more surprised than ever,
for he could not imagine how she had learned his name. But he soon
found that she knew a great deal more about him than his name; for she
told him how, when he was quite a little baby, his father, a gallant
knight, had been slain by the giant who lived in yonder castle, and
how his mother, in order to save Jack, had been obliged to promise
never to tell the secret.

"All that the giant has is yours," she said, and then disappeared
quite as suddenly as she came.

"She must be a fairy," thought Jack.

As he drew near to the castle, he saw the giant's wife standing at the
door.

"If you please, ma'am," said he, "would you kindly give me some
breakfast? I have had nothing to eat since yesterday."

Now, the giant's wife, although very big and very ugly, had a kind
heart, so she said: "Very well, little man, come in; but you must be
quick about it, for if my husband, the giant, finds you here, he will
eat you up, bones and all."

So in Jack went, and the giant's wife gave him a good breakfast, but
before he had half finished it there came a terrible knock at the
front door, which seemed to shake even the thick walls of the castle.

"Dearie me, that is my husband!" said the giantess, in a terrible
fright; "we must hide you somehow," and she lifted Jack up and popped
him into the empty kettle