who lived in a little cottage
with her only son Jack.

[Illustration: JACK SELLS A COW FOR SOME BEANS.]

Jack was a giddy, thoughtless boy, but very kind-hearted and
affectionate. There had been a hard winter, and after it the poor woman
had suffered from fever and ague. Jack did no work as yet, and by
degrees they grew dreadfully poor. The widow saw that there was no means
of keeping Jack and herself from starvation but by selling her cow; so
one morning she said to her son, "I am too weak to go myself, Jack, so
you must take the cow to market for me, and sell her." Jack liked going
to market to sell the cow very much; but as he was on the way, he met a
butcher who had some beautiful beans in his hand. Jack stopped to look
at them, and the butcher told the boy that they were of great value, and
persuaded him to sell the cow for them! And Jack was so silly as to
consent to this foolish bargain.

[Illustration: THE BEAN-STALK GROWS OUT OF SIGHT IN A NIGHT.]

When he brought them home to his mother instead of the money she
expected for her nice cow, she was very vexed and shed many tears,
scolding Jack for his folly. He was very sorry; but, he said, he might
as well make the best of his bargain, so he put the seed-beans into the
ground close by the side of the steep hill under shelter of which their
cottage was built, and went to bed. The next morning when he got up, he
found that the beans had grown, till the bean stalks reached right over
the top of the hill, and were lost to his sight. Greatly surprised, he
called his mother, and they both gazed in silent wonder at the
bean-stalk, which was not only of great height, but was thick enough to
bear Jack's weight.

"I wonder where it goes?" said Jack to his mother; "I think I will climb
up and see."

His mother wished him not to venture up this strange ladder, but Jack
coaxed her to give her consent to the attempt, for he was certain there
must be something wonderful in the bean-stalk.

Jack instantly began to climb, and went up and up on the ladder-like
bean till every thing he had left behind him, the cottage, the village,
and even the tall church tower, looked quite little, and still he did
not see the top of the bean stalk.

Jack felt a little tired, and thought for a moment that he would go back
again; but he was a very persevering boy, and he knew that the way to
succeed in anything is not to give up. So after resting for a moment he
went on, and at last rea