Jack laughed at them: ‘I am going down to-morrow myself.’
In the morning he went down to the wood. Here he is felling the trees. He heard something. He looked beneath his feet. He saw the little man in the stubble. Jack kicked him.
‘You had better keep quiet,’ said the little man.
The dwarf hit him. Down went Jack, and the dwarf half-killed him. There was Jack lying there now. The maid came with his dinner. Home went the maid, and told the two brothers to come and carry him home.
‘No,’ said Jack, ‘leave me here and go.’
The two brothers went home. Jack was watching him, and the little man crept under a great stone. Up got Jack now, and home he went, and told his two brothers to go into the stable and get out four horses. They took a strong rope, and the three went with the horses and fastened the rope round the stone. They took the horses, and pulled it up, and found a well there.
‘Go you down,’ said one.
‘Not I,’ said the other; ‘I am not going down.’
‘I will go down,’ says Jack. ‘Fasten this rope and let me down, and when you hear me say “Pull up,” pull me up; and when I say “Let go,” let me go.’
Now the two brothers fastened him and let him down. Down he went a very little way. The little man beat him. ‘Pull me up.’ He goes down again. He forgets the word: ‘Let me down.’ He came into a beautiful country, and there he saw the old dwarf. The old dwarf spoke to him: ‘Since you have come into this country, Jack, I will tell you something now.’ The old man tells Jack what he is to do. ‘You will find three castles. In the first one lives a giant with [[245]]two heads, and,’ said the old dwarf, ‘you must fight him. Take the old rusty sword. I will be there with you.’