"I don't care!" retorted Hansel. "He looks like a rich man's son, and he might tell us where we could get something to eat."
Just then the strange youth began to approach them with a proud air. He was really very handsome. He was very sturdy, and he was clothed smartly in a velvet jacket and knee breeches. A fine cloak fell loosely from his shoulders. He wore a plumed hat and carried a sword.
As he drew near Hansel said: "Hello! Have they been trying to lose you too?"
It was then that Everychild recognized the strange youth as Jack the Giant Killer; and at the same time he heard Grettel whispering:
"How handsome he is!"
Jack the Giant Killer replied smilingly to Hansel: "Lose me? Not at all! It's plain you don't know who I am." He touched his breast lightly with his forefinger. "I am Jack the Giant Killer." He then brought his heels together and removed his hat with a wide gesture, and made a fine bow.
"I recognized you," said Everychild, "though I didn't know you lived in this neighborhood. I mean, near Hansel and Grettel."
Jack replied with a certain neat air: "I don't live anywhere in particular. Did you never hear of my seven-league hoots? I have a way of bobbing up wherever there are any giants."
In the meantime Grettel had sat down on a grassy bank beside the road. "It's very tiresome, walking," she said. And then, very politely (to Jack), "Won't you sit down?"
He accepted this invitation, and Everychild and Hansel also sat down.