Диссертация (958832), страница 89

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“A sword thatnothing can stand against, and a suit that when you put it on, you will see everybody, and nobody willsee you, and a pair of shoes that will make you run faster than the wind blows.” “Where are they to befound?” said Jack. “In that red door you see there in the hill.” So Jack went and got them out. “Wherewill I try the sword?” says he. “Try it on that ugly black stump of a tree,” says the giant. “I see nothingblacker and uglier than your own head,” says Jack. And with that he made one stroke, and cut off thegiant’s head that it went into the air, and he caught it on the sword as it was coming down, and madetwo halves of it.

“It is well for you I did not join the body again,” said the head, “or you would havenever been able to strike it off again.” “I did not give you the chance of that,” said Jack. And hebrought away the great suit with him.So he brought the cows home at evening, and everyone wondered at all the milk they gave thatnight. And when the king was sitting at dinner with the princess, his daughter, and the rest, he said, “Ithink I only hear two roars from beyond tonight in place of three.”The next morning Jack went out again with the cows, and he saw another field full of grass, andhe knocked down the wall and let the cows in. All happened the same as the day before, but the giantthat came this time had two heads, and they fought together, and the little bird came and spoke to Jackas before.

And when Jack had brought the giant down, he said, “Give me my life, and I’ll give you thebest thing I have.” “What is that?” says Jack. “It’s a suit that you can put on, and you will see everyone but no one can see you.” “Where is it?” said Jack. “It’s inside that little red door at the side of thehill.” So Jack went and brought out the suit.

And then he cut off the giant’s two heads, and caughtthem coming down and made four halves of them. And they said it was well for him he had not giventhem time to join the body.That night when the cows came home they gave so much milk that all the vessels that could befound were filled up.The next morning Jack went out again, and all happened as before, and the giant this time hadfour heads, and Jack made eight halves of them.

And the giant had told him to go to a little blue doorin the side of the hill, and there he got a pair of shoes that when you put them on would go faster thanthe wind.That night the cows gave so much milk that there were not vessels enough to hold it, and it wasgiven to tenants and to poor people passing the road, and the rest was thrown out at the windows. I waspassing that way myself, and I got a drink of it.That night the king said to Jack, “Why is it the cows are giving so much milk these days? Areyou bringing them to any other grass?” “I am not,” said Jack “but I have a good stick, and whenever472they would stop still or lie down, I give them blows of it, that they jump and leap over walls and stonesand ditches; that’s the way to make cows give plenty of milk.”And that night at the dinner, the king said, “I hear no roars at all.”The next morning, the king and the princess were watching at the window to see what wouldJack do when he got to the field.

And Jack knew they were there, and he got a stick, and began tobatter the cows, that they went leaping and jumping over stones, and walls, and ditches. “There is nolie in what Jack said,” said the king then.Now there was a great serpent at that time used to come every seven years, and he had to get aking’s daughter to eat, unless she would have some good man to fight for her. And it was the princessat the place Jack was had to be given to it that time, and the king had been feeding a bully undergroundfor seven years, and you may believe he got the best of everything, to be ready to fight it.And when the time came, the princess went out, and the bully with her down to the shore, andwhen they got there what did he do, but to tie the princess to a tree, the way the serpent would be ableto swallow her easy with no delay, and he himself went and hid up in an ivy tree.

And Jack knew whatwas going on, for the princess had told him about it, and had asked would he help her, but he said hewould not. But he came out now, and he put on the suit he had taken from the first giant, and he cameby the place the princess was, but she didn’t know him. “Is that right for a princess to be tied to atree?” said Jack. “It is not, indeed,” said she, and she told him what had happened, and how the serpentwas coming to take her.

“If you will let me sleep for a while with my head in your lap,” said Jack,“you wake me when it is coming.” So he did that, and she awakened him when she saw the serpentcoming, and Jack got up and fought with it, and drove it back into the sea. And then he cut the ropethat fastened her, and he went away. The bully came down then out of the tree, and he brought theprincess to where the king was, and he said, “I got a friend of mine to come and fight the serpenttoday, where I was a little timorous after being so long shut up underground, but I’ll do the fightingmyself tomorrow.”The next day they went out again, and the same thing happened, the bully tied up the princesswhere the serpent could come at her fair and easy, and went up himself to hide in the ivy tree.

ThenJack put on the suit he had taken from the second giant, and he walked out, and the princess did notknow him, but she told him all that had happened yesterday, and how some young gentleman she didnot know had come and saved her. So Jack asked might he lie down and take a sleep with his head inher lap, the way she could awake him.

And all happened the same way as the day before. And thebully gave her up to the king, and said he had brought another of his friends to fight for her that day.The next day she was brought down to the shore as before, and a great many people gathered tosee the serpent that was coming to bring the king’s daughter away. And Jack brought out the suit ofclothes he had brought away from the third giant, and she did not know him, and they talked as before.But when he was asleep this time, she thought she would make sure of being able to find him again,and she took out her scissors and cut off a piece of his hair, and made a little packet of it and put itaway.

And she did another thing, she took off one of the shoes that was on his feet.And when she saw the serpent coming she woke him, and he said, “This time I will put theserpent in a way that he will eat no more king’s daughters.” So he took out the sword he had got fromthe giant, and he put it in at the back of the serpent’s neck, the way blood and water came spouting outthat went for fifty miles inland, and made an end of him.

And then he made off, and no one saw whatway he went, and the bully brought the princess to the king, and claimed to have saved her, and it is hewho was made much of, and was the right-hand man after that.But when the feast was made ready for the wedding, the princess took out the bit of hair shehad, and she said she would marry no one but the man whose hair could match that, and she showedthe shoe and said that she would marry no one whose foot would not fit that shoe as well. And thebully tried to put on the shoe, but so much as his toe would not go into it, and as to his hair, it didn’tmatch at all to the bit of hair she had cut, from the man that saved her.So then the king gave a great ball, to bring all the chief men of the country together to trywould the shoe fit any of them.

And they were all, going to carpenters and joiners getting bits of theirfeet cut off to try could they wear the shoe, but it was no use, not one of them could get it on.473Then the king went to his chief adviser and asked what could he do. And the chief adviser badehim to give another ball, and this time he said, “Give it to poor as well as rich.”So the ball was given, and many came flocking to it, but the shoe would not fit any one ofthem.

And the chief adviser said, “Is everyone here that belongs to the house?” “They are all here,”said the king, “except the boy that minds the cows, and I would not like him to be coming up here.”Jack was below in the yard at the time, and he heard what the king said, and he was very angry,and he went and got his sword and came running up the stairs to strike off the king’s head, but the manthat kept the gate met him on the stairs before he could get to the king, and quieted him down, andwhen he got to the top of the stairs and the princess saw him, she gave a cry and ran into his arms.

Andthey tried the shoe and it fitted him, and his hair matched to the piece that had been cut off. So thenthey were married, and a great feast was given for three days and three nights.And at the end of that time, one morning there came a deer outside the window, with bells on it,and they ringing. And it called out, “Here is the hunt, where is the huntsman and the hound?” So whenJack heard that he got up and took his horse and his hound and went hunting the deer. When it was inthe hollow he was on the hill, and when it was on the hill he was in the hollow, and that went on allthrough the day, and when night fell it went into a wood.

And Jack went into the wood after it, and allhe could see was a mud-wall cabin, and he went in, and there he saw an old woman, about twohundred years old, and she sitting over the fire. “Did you see a deer pass this way?” says Jack. “I didnot,” says she, “but it’s too late now for you to be following a deer, let you stop the night here.” “Whatwill I do with my horse and my hound?” said Jack. “Here are two ribs of hair,” says she, “and let youtie them up with them.” So Jack went out and tied up the horse and the hound, and when he came inagain the old woman said, “You killed my three sons, and I’m going to kill you now,” and she put on apair of boxing-gloves, each one of them nine stone weight, and the nails in them fifteen inches long.Then they began to fight, and Jack was getting the worst of it. “Help, hound!” he cried out, then“Squeeze, hair,” cried out the old woman, and the rib of hair that was about the hound’s neck squeezedhim to death.

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